


Iridium

by thescyfychannel



Series: IR77 [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - Magic, Guardian Angels, Multi, aradia does a ritual and gets an unexpected result, more on that later, okay TECHNICALLY it's a fae au disguised as demonstuck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2019-06-05 12:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 21,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15170786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescyfychannel/pseuds/thescyfychannel
Summary: Sometimes you end up with an undeserved bad rep.Sometimes you end up getting conflated with the kinda shit you see in Supernatural (even if you're DEFINITELY NOT THAT, who the FUCK assumed that you were a DEMON).And sometimes, just sometimes, your polycule gets dragged along with you.





	1. Aradia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [endeofblood](https://archiveofourown.org/users/endeofblood/gifts).



> Because I've been a little baby for demonstuck since the year of our Lord 2012.  
> There are so many ways to do this so if you're looking for a prompt with very little structure this would be it. Angel of death Aradia? Depressed college student with a Ouija board Aradia? Obnoxious demon hunter Eridan? Angelic abomination Eridan? The world is your oyster. Do w/e!! Go off!!
> 
> Also--while I totally and completely 100% understand being more comfortable writing some characters than others, please don't take this particular prompt if EriSol is your main sticking point. I absolutely absolutely adore EriSol, but I'd rather this not be "Eridan and Sollux get together and also some other people are there"

Everything about this was laid out according to your worst ever plan, and you could  _not_  have been more stoked. Demons! There was a whole world of them, out there, waiting to be discovered. You knew they moved among humans, easily, unnoticeably. You knew they had powers and strengths and weaknesses that you couldn't even imagine.

And you knew,  _knew,_ that if you were careful, they could be found.

What could be more exciting than  _that_?

 

You've got the board laid out before you, the tools you'll need for this latest endeavor all prepared. True, you've tried things like this before, but only ever on a smaller scale. There were some places that not even  _you_  dared to tread without proper care and forethought! This was definitely one of them.

One careful glance up at the disabled device. Then you leaned forward and set everything on fire.

 

For a moment, everything goes up in a blaze, and you think maybe you've done it wrong—then you can see the board still whole, shining with the light of a fire that does not touch it in the least, and you grin, fierce and proud, as you settle back to watch the pretty lights. You don't have to wait for it very long.

Smoke curls, ever upwards, coalescing into shapes you can't name, things you can't place, creatures halfway between one world and the other. It's one of the most amazing things you've ever seen, and you could cheerfully spend all night watching the display if you weren't waiting on a very important guest.

Smoke curls upwards and stops, coalescing into a shape you know very well.

_"Eridan?"_

He bares his teeth at you, or your startled (almost indignant) question. You're not quite sure. "Fucking  _skies_ , Megido. What in the name a the planets an' stars do you think you're  _doin'_?"

Okay. So maybe? Maybe you hadn't expected that.

 

 

Once you've broken the circle enough to let him out, he calms down somewhat. Somewhat. Eridan Ampora is known for being grumpy, more bristly than a startled hedgehog, and sometimes the best thing to do is to just let him ride the agitation out. You're doing that now, making tea for the both of you, as he takes a seat in your kitchen, trying to maneuver soft wings around one of your chairs. You don't even snicker when he gives up and plops his (admittedly rather nice) ass onto a stool, and fixes you with yet another glare, like his sudden issue with hard chair backs is  _completely_  your fault.

Wait. Oops. You guess it sort of...is?

"So," he starts, when it becomes obvious that you're not going to, "what the fuck."

"The fuck is that I wanted some answers! I didn't expect that they'd be coming from my..." For a moment, you pause. This is a bit of a tricky one: technically, the two of you are sharing a girlfriend  _and_  a boyfriend, but. There have been a couple of...moments. Lingering glances. Totally unplanned makeout sessions that are  _completely_  Feferi or Sollux's fault. Or both. They're terrible.

To his credit, he blushes rather well. "Yeah, well, I didn't expect you to be summonin' me in the middle a my run. I've got a fuckin' phone, hell, you've got my number, this was completely unnecessary."

"Listen, when I put out an all-call ad in the unearthly papers for an angel, I didn't expect you to be answering!"

Eridan sighs, and runs a hand through his hair, ruffling up his streak. It's then that you notice how stark the contrast has become: gone is the soft brown, cafe latte to the rest's dark cocoa. It's deep white on pure black now, and you have no idea how that particular description became stuck in your mind. "I'm...I guess you could call me the guard an' guide a this particular territory? Some describe it as bein' the denizen a this zone, but that's a little dark."

Something about his voice has you narrowing your eyes on him, suspicious in your own turn. "Who would  _some_  be?"

He blushes again. "The, uh. Others. Those a them that hang around here, or pass through peacefully, at least."

"And who are the others?"

This time, he offers a shrug, and you don't feel the urge to push him further. Hm. Angel boy has tells, who would've thought? "I don't know all a them. Not all the time, at least, I'm still a little green under the wings, aye? 'Sides, some a them are as good at hidin' as I am, an' I'm not even the head authority over all a this place. My clan handles the whole space, an' this is just sorta...my neighborhood."

"Your clan." His  _clan_. There are more angels around? This does explain all of his cousins, and the fact that he and Feferi had been looking for a place with so much extra space—Feferi.  _Feferi_. Shit, your poor girlfriend—"Does Feferi know?"

"My clan." There are no other words for it but those out of the more embarrassing class of romance novels and fanfiction: his eyes go cold and hard, reminiscent of some kind of metal if it weren't for the way the color simultaneously leeches right out of them. Worse than ice or death. "She does not, an' if you know what's best for her, you'll keep it that way."

 

This wouldn't be the first time you two have clashed over an opinion, sure, but you're starting to think it's going to end up being the most important. "I don't think that's fair. Ignorance is its own kind of danger, Eridan."

"An' knowledge can be a burden worse than anyone else would know." He closes his eyes for a moment, and when he reopens them, they're back to his usual brown—not the brilliant violet they'd been a mere moment before they'd gone frigid. How on earth had you missed that? "I'm not sayin' this lightly, Ara. I don't like keepin' her in the dark. But the moment she knows...everyone'll know that she knows, you hear me?"

"Physically, yes. In terms of understanding, not so much. What do you mean, everyone will know that she knows? Does it send up some kind of...demon signal?"

He blinks. "Is that what the books are callin' 'em now? Huh."

You file away the next several questions for later. "Well?"

"Basically, yeah. Her scent—not exactly scent, but that's the easiest way to frame it right now—will change. She'll be even more visible an' vulnerable than she was before." He rests his elbows on the table, looking you in the eyes. You know this particular Eridan. He's ready to convince you of what he thinks of necessary, whatever it takes. "An' the same goes for Sol."

Or. Not? He seems...serious, actually, like he's laid out all of his cards on the table right in front of you, and he's inviting you to have a look. Shit. This is even  _more_  effective than him getting persuasive.

You let out a sigh, and sit down, setting the steaming kettle on the table between you.

"You'd better tell me everything. From the start, this time."

He opens his mouth, and you glare at him, cutting him off. "And make it  _good_."

"Yes ma'am," he says, almost amused, and begins.


	2. Eridan

_It all started when we first met..._

It's your first day at your new school. First day on a new playground. First day for a lot of things, really. Cro doesn't seem to mind the switch, even though it means he has to walk you to school, and home again after. It's kinda nice, having a chance to talk to him all on your lonesome. Try and sort shit out together, as best as the two of you can. The new place is less lonely, too. You're not out in the middle of nowhere anymore, and your cousins are almost always waiting for you guys when you get home.

Da seems to like it too, which is an automatic plus in your opinion. Aigean Ampora is pretty hard to please, and when you'd seen the approving little smile as he looked over the house, your heart soared—

—only not really. You weren't supposed to do that without proper supervision. Not anymore.

But it was  _hard_ , it was hard an' no one understood—except maybe Cro an' Adrian an' Killian an' Da an' all the rest a your clan—absolutely no one at all. The world was full of life! Light and color, and you wanted to see every last  _bit_  of it, learn its histories and legends and magic and lore...

And you couldn't. You were landbound, restricted to being solidly mortal, two feet on the ground until all the  _danger_  passed, until you learned how to control yourself better. You and Cro both.

(The fact that your brother was having as much trouble as you was your only consolation right now, but what a consolation prize it was.)

So. First day at a new school. New playground. You'd already been at the new house for a week, now, and the neighborhood around seemed less...new, now that you'd found all the best places, but that still didn't change the facts. You didn't  _know_  anyone. They didn't know you.

Walking onto that playground, you were  _sure_  to be dead meat.

 

Then you'd felt the quietest little tug. It wasn't something you'd ever felt before—another first day for something—but you knew it, down to your sky-shaped bones. You'd read of it in old journals, your clan's books, heard of it in your family line's stories. The pull. The Call.

You'd just stumbled across your charge, and you had no idea which of the kids milling about on the playground it was.

"Cro," you mumbled, tugging at your older brother's sleeve. Summer had ended early, bringing in a crisp fall chill that heralded your favorite season—Cro's too, and Da's—and even the autumn air couldn't cool the fire that was slowly building its way up through your veins. 

When he looks down at you, his face goes pale white. You're not sure what you look like right now, but you can guess, just as much as you can tell when he glamours you by the relief rolling off of him in waves. "Be careful, alright?" He doesn't need to ask what's up. No one would.

Judging by the way he whips out his phone the moment you head off, no one will  _have_  to. Stupid gossipy Amporas.

 

The tug guides you through the playground, past clumps of kids and around loners with books, jump ropes and balls and even through a hopscotch chalking. You dutifully jump all the rules, and keep on going.

Whoever your charge is, they  _have_  to be somewhere.

Just when you're about to give up and head back to Cro, have another go at recess or lunch or something else, your internal compass spins like you've just stepped onto one of the poles—then swings right up to your own personal magnetic north.  
Feferi fuckin' Peixes.

 

She's a loner, but not quite that, judging by the way she's got the look of utmost concentration on her face. From the looks of it, she's been trying to get that scarf down out of the tree for a while now. You drop your bag by the trunk and roll up your sleeves. "Let me have a go," you say, and she turns to look at you.

You're pretty sure you look confident, capable, and cool.

She looks less than impressed. "You're shorter than I am," she points out, and jerks her chin up at the scarf, "and I still can't reach it."

"Why haven't you asked a teacher for help, then, huh?" You don't  _mean_  to be a dick, but you want her to think you're...well. Capable, confident, and cool. Not necessarily in that order.

Feferi shrugs, her eyes darting away like she's about to come up with some lie. You'd rather not let her. "Never mind. Tell you what, I'll give you a boost, an' if that doesn't work, my older brother's taller'n both a us. He'll help."

When she smiles, your whole fucking world clicks into alignment, and you can see why Adrian said this shit's enough to make a romantic out of anyone.

(Technically, you're pretty sure you're not  _required_  to fall in love with your charge. You're also pretty sure every other fuckin' Ampora already  _has_.)


	3. Aradia Again

You blink at Eridan Ampora, as he finishes up his "Brief Overview of How I Met Fef Peixes". This...actually explains quite a bit, now that you think of it. You've always sort of seen him as an overprotective guard dog kinda guy, and that still seems to be pretty true, even now. It's kinda cute, in a way that made you worry, a bit.

Apparently, it's genetic.

Or magic.

You're still not sure.

 

Eridan shifts, anxiously, like he's waiting for your reply, and you gently nudge his cup of tea at him. "You don't expect me to think that's it, do you?"

Now he goes on the defensive. "What, did you expect there to be more?"

"I mean...yes? That can't be the only majorly magical, demonic, angelic, or—"

"Fae."

"—fae thing that's happened to the two of you, up until now—wait, did you say fae?"

He shifts back from defensive to amused and superior, with that stupid smirk on his face. "Yup. I suppose the books shifted over from referrin' to us as the Fair Folk to 'demons'. Can't say I mind the change so much, but I think my Da might miss the old respectful title."

You tilt your head, considering what you know, and come up with a guess: "The Lords and Ladies?"

His eyes light up in pleasure, and he sits up a bit straight in his seat. "Aye, that's the one. He's real traditional."

"Are you?"

Eridan throws his head back and laughs, and you remember why your relationship status with him is a great big question mark. "We mature at different rates, but I'm actually the age it says on my driver's license. I'd be considered somethin' of a child still back home, or a teenager a some sort. Most a the fae that are still out an' about over here have...adapted, to the way human time works, which probably made my brother's life a lot easier. Rebellious, that one."

From everything you know of Cronus Ampora, you'd have to agree. "How old is your father?"

"He's only about five hundred or so. Glamours himself up a bit so he could pass for his proper age, otherwise he'd look like a much older brother, or mayhaps a young uncle." He rolls his eyes at the idea of that, and you give him an apologetic look. You're pretty sure that  _both_  of you are remembering all of the "hot dad" comments that Sollux has made, and trying not to think about how much  _worse_  it could get.

"This is kind of a lot to take in, Dan." His eyes light up whenever you use the nickname, and you feel a flicker of guilt for a moment, that you haven't made more of an effort to. "It probably doesn't help that my literature is apparently all wrong!"

He gives you a sheepish little grin. "Alright, well, I can recommend a couple more titles for you to check out, an' there's actually a more knowledge-centric fae line around here that might be able to help out with any further research. I can likely wrangle an introduction, given that my clan's settled here, an' that we've had trade in the past with them."

You relax, just a little bit more. You're not in trouble for digging too deep, your girlfriend and boyfriend's hot boyfriend is offering to help you do further research, and so long as you can keep from telling Feferi or Sollux, the loves of your life, any information about this momentous new revelation, everything's going to be just fine.

Really, you'd be a lot happier about the whole situation if those weren't famous last words before everything went to shit.


	4. Sollux

There were some things you kept quiet, regardless of who you had to keep them quiet from.

Admittedly, that kind of thing sucked like hell! Especially when it involved your partners, which was, literally the worst position to be in. Secrets, you could handle, but keeping shit back from Aradia, Feferi, and Eridan? God. It sucked.

As far as you could tell, Eridan was definitely some kind of fae, even if you weren't sure what kind he was at all. Figuring it out had been a pretty impressive achievement on your part, in your own opinion, considering that you had almost  _no_  contact with the others, no teacher in any of your own powers or ways, and absolutely no one to help you with sorting this shit out. You weren't even sure if he knew yet or not, but the last thing you wanted to do was send his flare up.

Okay. Maybe you needed to do more research in his direction, if you can work out some way to.

Aradia, as far as you can tell, is completely human. Feferi, not so much. You're pretty sure she's something like you, with a foot in both worlds, caught between and left behind all at once. It makes you feel left alone, most of the time, to think about it like that.

It makes you feel more alone when you realize that she definitely,  _definitely_ , doesn't know.

And there's no way you could tell her without bringing this whole damn other world on her head.

 

Speaking of Feferi.

She's sprawled out across your bed, looking through house listings and frowning to herself as none of them seem to have what she wants. You set aside your latest project, and flop down next to her on the bed, wrapping her up in your blankets until she's a giggling Feferi burrito. "Hey! Sollux, I'm workingon something, come on, lemme go!"

"Mmmm nope. You gotta pay your taxes first."

Feferi grins, just as you intended. "Oh, my taxes, huh? Alright, smart guy, what's the tax?"

"Two kisses. Actually, make that four. In fact—" She kisses you, four times, before you can actually raise the number any higher, and you grin back at her, your ears just a little bit red. "What are you working on?"

"Trying to find us housing. I wasn't sure what your roommate situation will be next year, so I've been looking at five and six bedroom places."

Your eyebrows go way up. "Are those even in our price range?"

"Adrian and Killian said they needed a place to crash when they're in town, and they're willing to chip in a small amount for use of a spare bedroom whenever they feel like it." She somehow flips back onto her stomach, partially unrolling your hard work in the process. It's your turn to frown, as you tuck in the ends again. "Actually, Eridan also asked me to find a place with a guest bedroom, and if it means his endless stream of visiting relatives don't have to crash on our couch. I always feel bad, they're so  _polite_ , and they always insist on helping around the house?"

You're not entirely sure how she can stand a constant flood of people in her space, but to be fair, she's been best friends with Eridan nearly as long as you've been best friends with Aradia. It's  _amazing_ , the things you can acclimate to. "Hm. What about one with a converted basement? So they'd have their own entrance and exit, and maybe a little kitchenette and bathroom, but they could still come upstairs whenever they needed something?"

She beams at you, and the blush gets even worse. "That's  _perfect_! I mean, of course I'd still insist they come up for meals, I'm not going to leave them to  _starve_ , but that way they wouldn't have to worry about waking anyone up, and Danny wouldn't need to stay up to let anyone in..."

 

Making her happy feels stupidly good, sometimes. Okay. Who are you kidding. All the time. There's no way in hell you could ruin this kind of thing, even if the ache of being alone threatens to claw you in half some nights.

You tuck a long curl of hair back behind her ear, as she adjusts her search parameters. "My roommate's moving in with his girlfriend, next year, so you don't need to worry about him."

"When he visits, he's sleeping in your room," she informs you, and you snicker, shifting to tug her into your arms and set your chin on top of her head.

"I'm sure we can make that work. Who's taking the master bedroom?"

"I was thinking that could be like...shared space for all of us? I mean, we're  _all_  kind of dating, and considering how often we end up piled into the same bed..."

You can't help but blush, again. At least it's mostly confined to your ears. "Okay, okay, yeah, sure. We can run it by everyone. So that's, uh. One bedroom for each of us, one for Adrian and Killian, the master bedroom, and the basement, for all of Ampora's inexplicably gorgeous relatives."

Feferi shoves you off the bed, onto the pillows you'd carefully, discreetly, been dropping off the edge of your bed in preparation for this very moment. You know your beloved partners almost as well as they know you, and really, this moment was  _completely_  inevitable.

Beat.

"Gods you're so not wrong though."

From your new spot on the floor, you grin up at her, and she throws a pillow at your face.


	5. ?????

the world turns faster

unexpectedly, brilliantly bright

and they can change things

see things

screw things up

like never before

the world turns faster, and you wait

you watch

you hunt

it is a slow and steady race

you are a slow and steady creature

waiting

waiting

_**waiting** _

it is, you think

one of the hardest things you have ever done

but worth it

so, so worth it

you are waiting

you are hunting

you are  _coming_


	6. Feferi

One of the most difficult parts about juggling three significant others, you've found, is the sheer amount of  _scheduling_  you have to do. Someone suggested spreadsheets—you're not sure who, as you had immediately blocked the memory from your mind. Spreadsheets are definitely the devil's work, your life is hectic enough without them, you don't need to have things be both in hell  _and_  hectic.

Eridan's resorted to color-coded schedulers and bullet journals. Those are slightly more acceptable, especially as it's a damn good opportunity to break out the stickers and stationary, and the fact that he'd decorated yours for you had helped matters along a little bit!

Sure, you wanted  to be around as much as you could, and do as much as you could, but things were already crazy, even without dating! Getting the fuck out of dodge (your bitch of a mother's house) and trying to get everything...settled, after graduation, and what with work...it was a lot.

 

One of the best parts about juggling three significant others, though is that there's  _always_  someone around to help lighten the load. Sollux had largely taken over the house hunting, in return for one of your excellent shoulder massages (he was definitely a slut for shoulder massages), and from this angle, you could easily peer over his shoulder as he checked out the different listings his hastily written program had pulled for you.

"If they say it's a fixer upper—"

"I'm not an idiot, FF, what do you take me for?"

"A complete and utterly adorable dumbass."

"You're so fucking valid, and probably right in most cases—"

"But let me guess. Not in this one?"

"Hah, no. Check it." He pulls up a cute little house in another tab. "Google Street View, babey. I know what's up."

It's  _perfect_ , and you tell him as much when you tackle him to kiss his face. He barely saves your laptop from an ignominious fate, as his ears burn red and you deliver several dozen smooches.

"Haha, wow, ok, next time I get in trouble I'll find you another house—" You kiss him again. He shuts up.

 

* * *

 

Another thing about the multiple significant other thing: you need ways to keep them straight (HAH. you are the best foursome of bisexual disasters ever, it is you). Color-coding was one, different ringtones and text tones was another—Eridan's text alert goes off, and you scramble for your phone, leaving Sollux to regroup. When you drop down on Sollux's bed again, he's almost hunched around your laptop, like he can fend off any future affection attacks better that way. Absolutely adorable.

[hey fef im ovver at aras ill be home a little later]  
[No worries! I'm at Sollux's dorm, we're looking at listings. I t)(ink )(e found a couple of good ones, if you're up for some more )(ouse )(unting s)(enanigans t)(is week?]  
[fuckin finally wwe need wway more space than wwevve got just givve me a date an time ill be there]  
[Will do. Love you <3 <3]  
[lovve you too <3 <3]

He's so fucking cute.

"Hey Sollux?"

"Hmm?" Your boyfriend looks up from the laptop, blinking at you, his glasses just starting to slide down his nose. "What's up?"

You beam at him. "Want to come over to our place? Eridan's going to be out at Aradia's for the foreseeable future, I can make us lunch and we can get him to bring her over for dinner."

The offer perks him right up, and he packs up his stuff in record time. You insist on helping to carry half of the crap he's bringing—planning for a sleepover, it seems—while he attempts to convince you of the glories of ordering takeout food instead of having to cook.

 

* * *

 

Twelve hours later, you wake up in the middle of the night, and you can't go back to sleep.

When Eridan had come back, Aradia in tow, there was something...different. Not off, per se, but different, in a way you could neither reach nor put your finger on. It was as if some distance had been created—or as if some distance that had previously been covered had somehow come to light. They exchanged more glances than they usually did, they seemed to have...found a connection.

Not that you were complaining! You loved both of them, and if this was a sign of them getting closer, hey, you were all for it.

But it didn't feel quite like the fumbling beginnings of a new romance. It felt...different. And from the frowns Sollux wore, occasionally, you had a feeling he felt it too.

Then again, he was one to talk, when it came to distances, and keeping things back.

 

Fuck.

 

Another thing about the multiple significant other thing, and sometimes, the most awful one of all: sometimes you ended up feeling really,  _really_ , left out.


	7. Present Eridan

Upsides and downsides to being fae. You didn't need quite so much sleep as your standard human, or even your standard fae. You could go quite a while without sleep if you had to, but you'd end up crashing at the end of it. Four hours a night was quite restful, comparable to a human's eight to ten, and it meant you could get other shit down later on, meant you could be productive, when other people were out.

Or sometimes, it meant you could stay up and hold her through the worst of the nightmares. Keep an eye on the world as it turned. Handle her shitty mother without having to worry her until the morning.

Or sometimes, like now, it meant you could drift in and out of a semi-aware state as you waited for your charge to go to bed.

Even if she didn't go back to sleep until four in the morning.

 

That was enough rest for you. Fef couldn't sleep, which meant that you weren't going to get a decent night until you figured out what was weighing on her soul. From the feeling of her you had, something was seriously wrong, something you were scared you might not be able to fix—but then, you were always scared of that. In fact—

 

A quiet noise pulls your attention from your sleeping girlfriend, to the outline of your boyfriend. Looks like you weren't the only one up at odd hours.

"Go back to sleep, Sol," you murmur, keeping your voice soft.

Your night vision is good enough that you can see him roll his eyes. "Hypocrite," he whispers, then jerks his chin over towards Feferi. "I don't know what's up with you and AA but I think FF's feeling...left out. I guess."

You frown, look down at Feferi again. Fuck. You've kept fae shit from her before, but now that Aradia knows, that's two of you—it's not just your secret now. It's something that the two of you might...sort of be actively keeping from her. Even if it's for a good reason. "I suppose so," you say, looking up at him again. "Are you feelin' left out too?"

"A little, yeah," he replies, and the twinge of guilt hits harder. "But it's cool. Not like I tell you guys everything either."

"But she  _does_  tell us everything," you say. True, it might not always reach the larger group, but there has never been a secret that Feferi Peixes could keep from you. "Shit. I've gotta figure this out."

Sollux scoots a little closer, and, in one of his odd and rare comforting gestures, loops an arm around you. "I'm sure she'll understand."

"She shouldn't have to," you mumble, leaning into his hold. "Gods. I really fucked up, didn't I?"

"You're tempting me, ED," Sollux says, his voice the epitome of stern. "Do you  _know_  how much I want to mock you right now?"

"Far more than you ought to," you say, and shove your face against his neck. "It ain't that I don't  _want_  to tell her, Sol. I swear."

He's quiet, for several long moments, another astonishing feat all its own. "I figured."

Something in you eases, and you wrap your arm around him in return, gripping tight. "I just...it's more dangerous for her to know everything right now, is all."

 

For some reason, that makes him tense up, instead of having the desired effect of making him relax just a  _little_ bit more. You frown, and sit upright, looking him over carefully. "Sol? Is somethin' wrong?"

"No, uh." He looks...agitated. On edge. Nervous. "White lies for the greater good, right?"

"...you could call it that. I'm deliberately withholdin' information she might need because I know she cannot have if she wishes to remain safe."

Sollux stares into the middle distance, and you try to remain calm at the sight. "Dangerous, how?"

"...how do you mean?"

"In what would would it be dangerous for her to know this thing that you don't want to tell her about."

"...uh. Emotionally an' mentally are a possibility, sure. But I'd say that physically is the most likely one?" Now he seems about ready to bolt, if you make the slightest wrong move. With the way he's acting, it's kind of starting to make you wonder...

"Cool. Good to know."

Your eyes narrow on your shared boyfriend. "Sol," you start, and he freezes up. In return, your arm tightens around him, crushing him close against your side. He's not getting away just yet. "Sol. How long have you known about the fae?"

 

Jackpot. He slumps against you, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. This was not the way a regular human would handle shit, it is not the way an experienced fae would, but luckily for you, Sollux Captor seems to be neither of those things.

"Well?"

His ears burn crimson red as any light, and he shoves your face. "Boy meets girl, girl meets boy, the boy is actually a faerie or something, some dude from a Court—or so she said. I've never really had any contact with anyone from any of the courts. I did get to meet my Dad a couple of times, so I'm assuming he didn't really just up and abandon us or anything, but."

You run a hand down his back, trying to soothe him as best as you can under these circumstances. "So you found out, an' your flare went up."

He closes his eyes for a moment, remembering. "Yeah, p much. I was out mostly alone, I would've been toast if it hadn't been for my best friend."

You remember, all of a sudden, that his best friend and roommate's name is Kesten Arrayl. Once, you'd considered that to be a hilarious coincidence. Now, you're starting to wonder if perhaps, just perhaps, he was Kesten  _Arrayl_ , an actual Arrayl, one of the diplomats and historians and lorekeepers your society so revered.

You did not envy him the position in the slightest. But it would make things easier on everyone involved.

"Did you know that it's entirely possible that your best friend might just so happen to be one a the heirs to one a the most influential families in the fae world?"

"Oh, yeah, Kesten? No, he totally is." You go from being smug, to being flabbergasted—and it's Sollux's turn to look horribly smug, that jackass. "You should see your face right now, ED."

"I can see enough a yours, thanks. That'd make shit a lot easier, I'll tell you that right now—do you have any idea what sort a fae you are?"

"Mhm," Sollux says, leaning into your hold. "Found out the basics from a demon hunter, something electricity based. KT couldn't really tell me much beyond that, but we don't...really talk about it. Why do they keep calling us demons?"

You nod. That's easy to see, Sollux has a tendency to bottle shit up sometimes. Not that you can talk. "Shit goes in an' out a vogue—names for us, I mean. I blame  _Supernatural_."

 

There's a long moment of silence, quiet settling between the two of you. Then he shifts, looking up at you again. "So what kind of fae are you?"

For a moment, you flush red, ducking your head so he can't quite see your face as well as he could before. "Well. Uh."

"Come on, Ampora."

"There's likely a couple other reasons they call us demons, aye? Some a our powers mimic what humans know a demons, an'...look, I'm an angel, alright?"

"Whoever told you that lied," Sollux says, so reflexively that you're nearly certain he's using snark to cope with shock.

"I mean it, Captor. My clan's made up of angel-type fae—or maybe we're angels that just live an' work primarily among the fae, fuck if I know."

 

There's another long silence, and you hold Sollux a little tighter, waiting for him to break it. "You know, this really explains all your hot cousins."

 

Your attempt to murder him wakes Ara and Fef up, sure, but you can't really complain—at least, not until Feferi tackles you and even then, it's balanced out by Aradia taking over your previous homicide attempt.


	8. Sollux Pt. 2

After the revelation that you were not, in fact, the only jackass who was aware of the Greater Shitfuckery of Your World and the Worlds Beyond It, you'd taken it upon yourself to argue a very unpopular position: Feferi needed to be told.

 

On one of the days your quadruply confusing schedules landed you in the same spot as AA and ED at once, you'd pleaded your case to the both of them, to skeptical and worried looks.

One guess for which loving and wonderful datemate had which.

"Look, I get it, it's dangerous—I know, I would've fucking  _died_  if KT hadn't been there to save my ass—but she needs to know. She can  _tell_  we're leaving her out of shit, and it's killing her inside." You can see this easily, and you don't know why they can't, or won't. You fucking hate it.

Eridan runs a hand through his hair, looking frustrated, and skeptical. "Look, I get it. I do. I don't like seein' her hurtin' any more than you, Sol. I don't like  _feelin'_  it, an' trust me, I really fuckin' can. But it's not safe, an' you know that as well as I do, you just said it."

Aradia is the worried one, which gives you some hope: maybe she can be talked around. You've known her for longer anyway, and you probably have a better chance at convincing her of your point of view. "I mean...if it's that dangerous, then I can see why Eridan doesn't want us to tell her. But if we know what's coming, then doesn't that mean we can be ready for whatever comes? If we're there to protect her, she'll have a better chance of making it out of this okay." Fuck yes. Score one Team Captor.

Your boyfriend still looks completely unconvinced. That's okay, it's just become two against one, a situation he is infinitely used to falling prey to and a situation that  _you_  are infinitely used to winning. Compound that with the fact that Aradia, your best friend, is on your side, and the fact that he and Aradia  _still_  haven't sorted out their unspoken  _thing,_ and it's a guaranteed victory.

You almost feel a little bad for him.

 

Aradia gives you a look. You respond in kind.

Eridan's eyes go wide as the two of you advance on him. "Just hear us out, Eridan," Aradia says, in a very soothing tone. He looks the absolute opposite of soothed, and you grin at him.

He'll come around. Eventually.

 

* * *

 

ED makes very excellent hot cocoa, and AA and FF have both cribbed the recipe off of him for date nights and late nights before. Yours is better, in your opinion, and that's what you pour into his mug as he wrinkles his nose at you, offended that you aren't making him your favorite. "Are you goin' to be pullin' that pitch shit all the time, now that I know that you know?"

You stick your tongue out and flop down next to him, your mug in hand. AA had been served first, and you would rather lose an eye (or two) than admit it was part of  _that pitch shit_. Even if it totally was. "So how exactly do we want to tell her? And I'll ask when, but if the answer isn't  _really fucking soon_ , I'm going to have to kick your ass until it's a black and blue that doesn't match your  _aesthetic_."

He sneers at you, gearing up to start on another tirade and Aradia gently pats his face, which gets him to quiet down, and gives him the startled look of a newborn baby fawn. Okay. Maybe he's a little adorable. Sometimes.

When you press into his side a little bit more, he huffs, and settles down a little bit more. "I still don't think it's a good idea," he says, snuggling down between you two a little bit more. You've noticed that he gets a little more clingy on nights Feferi has to work later.

"We know," you say, all the same soothings that Aradia had pretended at earlier. He chirps, and you wonder at how he's managed to hide his nature from all three of you for so long. "We can handle it. Together."

There's a long quiet, while he sorts out what to do, what to say—what arguments, if any, you've overlooked. What claims he can make.

Then his resolve seems to firm, and he gives a quiet little nod, nothing more than a dip of his head up and down. "Together," he repeats, and some of that sick, awful tension inside of you, seems to ease.

Together.


	9. Feferi's

You loved your job, most days. Some days more so than others, some days a lot less—but really, most days, you definitely, definitively, loved your job. Even if it was just one of your two jobs, and the other one sucked hardcore.

You didn't really love the way it tended to eat into your free time. One of the best things about finally being  _done_  with your program was that you'd have much greater freedom to pick and choose your jobs as they came, instead of having to settle on one particular one, because some jackass in a suit had decided that it "must be so".

You were  _really_  looking forward to that day.

 

You had your heart set on a little clinic, close enough to your current apartment, and the new house the four of you (six, technically, plus however many relatives Eridan had) were looking at. You'd volunteered there, when you'd first started studying veterinary medicine, and the owner was an absolute treasure, who'd promised to hire you as soon as you graduated, as long as she had the space.

A week ago, you'd gotten the call—she had the space. Someone was planning a big move out of state, and it was timed for just after you graduated—enough time for them to train you to fill the position before she left, but not so long that you'd have to awkwardly wait in the wings. It was  _perfect_.

 

Of course, to  _get_  there, you'd actually have to survive the boredom that came with your current  _other_  job, and all of the assholes that made themselves  _your_  problem. Working medical magic on actual human people was not your field of expertise, but you knew a thing or two about paperwork for similar—and even if you liked your other job better, this one was what paid the bills.

Even if it sometimes came with the  _weirdest_  shit.

 

* * *

 

When the guy staggers into the clinic, your first assumption is that he's a drunk. Your  _next_  is that he's overdosed on some kind of drug, judging by the way he's swaying, and the colorful paint on his clothes, and the way he's got a hand pressed to the paint stain like it's some kind of stab wound.

Your third, and most accurate assumption, is that this guy is bleeding, badly, in a color that human blood does not come in.

"Help," he gasps, and grabs at the counter before he falls. His hands are covered in that same paint-blood-whatever, and you grab at his shirt before he can collapse.

Panic surges through you, and you glance wildly around, trying to see if there's anyone who could take over temporarily, or offer some, any kind of help. "Just—just give me a minute to call a doctor—"

He shakes his head, wild-eyed. "No—no, it has to be you, you're fae, you're safe—"

You don't hear him very well, the first time.  _Fair, maybe?_  It doesn't matter, he's lost enough blood that you're pretty sure he's more than a little delusional. "No, I promise you, the doctor will be fair, I can go in with you if you're worried or scared—"

"No, Feferi," he interrupts, and places a hand on your neck, to haul himself up and look you in the eyes. " _Fae_."

His expression has turned from wild and lost to deliberately cruel, a mocking smile over his lips. You don't understand it. You don't know why.

 

Until the pain starts.

 

That smile spreads wider, a derisive, divisive grin, and the mess, the blood on him—not on you—vanishes, just as he does. You're left alone, dropping down to your knees, clutching at your head, as everything,  _everything_ , pours into you, as the other half of your heritage calls you back home—his handprint burns on your neck, the blood he's left on you (and now you know it for blood, for all that it is as deep purple as paint) seems to blaze with colors you had never been able to see before. You are incandescent; you are lit from the inside out.

You throw your head back and  _scream_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> running a wee bit late on my own update schedule Whoops  
> (in my defense, I had no internet access all weekend!!)


	10. Inevitably, Aradia

You're in the process of acquiring the components for a late night snack for you and the boys when Eridan's head snaps up, as if tuned to some weird frequency you can't hear. A second later, Sollux follows suit, and you set the food down, frowning slightly at the both of then. "Hey," you begin, "is something—"

Your sentence is never finished, because Eridan lets out a pained noise and vanishes, in a scent like everything you know of storms. Sollux is still here, but he looks ready to bolt for the door. You're reasonably sure it's only a desire not to  _completely_  exclude you from the proceedings that has him staying. "FF," he says, his head swinging back towards that same direction. "She knows."

Oh. Fuck.

 

* * *

 

You take the car.

It's weird, how the most mundane stuff seems to matter so much when you're driving off to what might be the scene of a crime. Neither Feferi nor Eridan will answer their phones, even though you've  _both_  made attempts to call them, three times each, and a couple more of Sollux on your phone as you drove.

The two of you had shoved some medical supplies and blankets and food in the back of the car, everything you thought you might need after something like this. You couldn't remember the name, the term, for what had just happened, but you  _knew_  what it would do: Feferi's power would surge, and go up like a beacon, as she realized the truth of her nature. It would act like a beacon, even, drawing every fae for miles around in. Her survival depended on who got there first, how powerful they were, and what they were inclined to do with her.

 

And as you drove, both of you hoped,  _desperately_  so, that Eridan had made it there first.

 

* * *

 

When you finally arrived at the clinic, something—once again like storms—hang heavy in the air. Sollux insisted on going through first, his glasses carefully removed and hung in his shirt, each of his eyes a hue you had never seen on a human before.

But that was kind of the point, though, wasn't it? Funny how you kept forgetting that.

 

You weren't sure what you were expecting to see when Sollux swung the door open, but it sure as shit wasn't what looked to be the remains of an incredibly brutal paintball fight. By contrast, Eridan holding a paint-splattered sword— _blood_ , your mind supplied,  _if they bled in colors_ —felt much more normal. It almost made it possible to ignore an unconscious, blood-splattered Feferi, clutched in his free arm.

When he looked up at the two of you, though, storms twisted in his eyes, and you nearly took a step back and away—this wasn't how you'd ever seen him before. It wasn't how you had ever been ready to see him.

The fact that it felt  _right_  for him, to have hair crested with mist, eyes sparking with lightning, and a voice that rolled, thunder deep, as he asked Sollux if there were any more out there, was another reminder you weren't yet ready for.

 

This was how they were. This was their world.

You could feel your resolve firm, curling underneath your skin and settling tight along your spine. You'd gotten something of an invitation in, and you weren't giving up that quickly. They needed someone with your skill set, and you  _knew_ , very well, that being a normal human could go a couple of different ways.

Like  _hell_  were you going to let some fae-ass shit dictate things for  _you._

 

* * *

 

Between Sollux and Eridan, and the mop you'd found, the clinic received the fastest cleaning of its life.

Feferi was made comfortable on some benches, still out, and the three of you—two at a time, one staying with Feferi—made sure that there hadn't been any collateral damage before setting to work. Then they'd done some magic to get her cleaned up, and packed you and her both into the car, heading for home.

"We'll come back for FF's car tomorrow," Sollux explained, his hands a little tighter on the steering wheel as he stared straight ahead, into the night. "For now, it's better to leave it there."

Eridan had insisted on taking the back seat, and after hearing everything you had over the past couple days, you couldn't blame him. He was curled around Feferi, resting his chin on top of her head, as he watched the road between driver's side and shotgun. "There might be some questions about what happened, but the Courts are used to bein' on cleanup. They won't last long, an' they'll be answered soon enough."

From your seat, glancing between Eridan's hold on Feferi, her sleeping form, and Sollux's all-too-rigid expression, you nod. For once, they're making the effort to keep you mortals—you, mortal, now that Feferi apparently  _knows_ —in the loop. Even though they looked as fucked up as you ever seen them.

Something in you wells up a little more, and you reach out, hands landing on shoulders and thighs, as you stroke over Eridan's back soothingly, and pat Sollux's leg. "We'll make it work," you say. " _And_  we can keep her safe."

 

They exchange a look that you're slowly learning how to decipher:  _How'd we get so lucky? Maybe this_ will _be alright._

Maybe you're the one who's lucky. Maybe it's all four of you. You're not sure you need to know.


	11. ????

the aborted strike

of a snake

is not half so poetry as it is

dissonance

clatter

the clashing of music never meant to be written

but you

you knew

you waited

and watched

and they hunted

and they easily failed

they easily fell

and you

you laughed

knowing

knowing

_**knowing** _

there is-was more

to her

to him to them to all of them

than they ever let show

than she ever let show

than he ever let show

than she ever let show

than he ever let show

than the world was ever meant to know

but-until-but

the dissonance

 

you revel in it


	12. Danny

This is probably the most terrified you've ever fucking been.

Feferi is unconscious in your arms, shifting and shimmering with all the power of a newly-found fae, and you're both pleased and panicked. She knows, now, she  _knows,_  no more secrets between you, you can finally, finally, be absolutely as you are.

And then the doubting voice in the back of your head goes,  _but what if she hates you for keeping it from her?_

And then your common sense goes,  _you stupid, selfish, fuck. She's hurt, and all you care about is her reaction_.

When Sollux snaps a question out in Fae—mental note, help Aradia learn Fae—you don't even hear it. You make a pained noise, and curl tighter around Feferi, one hand tangled into her hair, one looped around her waist. She did her best, she did, and you're so fucking proud of her. Focus on her.

 

She doesn't stir.

You fight not to panic.

 

The car pulls to a halt, finally, in front of the apartment you share with her, and occasionally Sollux, and occasionally Aradia. When Sollux tries to take her, you want to protest, but he gives you a sharp look, and jerks his chin at your frozen fingers, the ice at your feet. Shit. You hadn't noticed. "I—"

"I know," Sollux says, and carefully lifts your girl out of your arms. "She's really warm, anyway." Relief floods through you, and you nod at him.

Aradia stays behind to help you out of the car, carefully unfolding you from the seat, keeping up a running commentary of her latest day at grad school. You'd never known that fossils could be so interesting, at a moment like this. In general, sure, you were happy to talk about them—probably more so than anyone else in your clover, considering your own interest in history. Right now, this knowledge seems absolutely vital to your ongoing survival. Funny how that kind of thing works.

 

By the time she gets you upstairs and fixed up, Feferi's cleaned off and tucked in on the expanded-bed-thing the four of you occasionally construct, using ottomans, bracing chairs, the big pullout couch, and pillows. The four of you have it down to a science, and you're pretty sure Sollux has tried to talk to the university about getting an architecture degree purely for the sake of that. No luck so far.

Sollux looks up at the two of you from his place curled around Feferi. Good. His summer heat will help her, and you think—you're sure—that's what she needs, right now. That's what she needs.

Then he jerks his head at you, and you blink, hard. "Get over here," he says.

You head over there so fast that Ara gets pulled behind you. She doesn't much seem to mind.

"Is she—are you—"

"I'm fine, but she needs some kind of balance, her temperature's all over the place." You nearly sag in relief: this is something that you can  _help_  with, this is something that you can do.

Carefully, you shift under the blankets. "Alright. Let's do this shit."

 

Aradia climbs in after you, sitting at the foot of the bed. Something about her company makes you a little less afraid of what's to come, and considering that she's a mortal, you're not entirely sure why that is. Maybe it's a mortal thing. Maybe it's a function of her character. Maybe you're overthinking shit because you're frankly fucking terrified that you've done something so irrevocably  _wrong_  that Fef is gonna be lost to you forever.

Fuck.  _Fuck_. You  _know_  what happens to guardians who fail their charges. You know. You'd give anything to keep her safe, but—but what if it's not  _enough_.

 

Aradia, from the end of the bed, gently tosses a house slipper at your head in such a way that the rebound hits the floor and not Feferi. You give her a grateful look, and wrap a little more around your girl, as Sollux shifts against her. "Thanks," you say.

"I can't believe you're thanking her for braining you with my Pikachus."

"It was one Pikachu an' maybe I needed it."

Sollux snorts. "I'll keep that in mind next time—"

"From  _her_. You're a shit a the highest degree." You grin, when Aradia giggles at that, and nuzzle the top of Feferi's hair.

From the foot of the bed, again, Aradia gently lifts the blanket up. Your eyes narrow on her—suspicion runs rampant through your mind, what if she's a spy, what if she's one of them—until she carefully settles Feferi's feet into her lap and starts massaging them. Oh. Right.

You feel frightfully stupid, but that's really nothing all that new.

Then again, from the look Sollux is giving you, he's about as scared and stupid and definitely not about to blame you for either. "It's okay, ED," he says, and you make a choked sort of trill, as you balance out his heat: between the two of you, you can just about keep Feferi's temperature stable. Probably some kind of side benefit from your courts sandwiching hers on either side, seasons-wise.

"He's kind of a disaster, isn't he?" Aradia's tone is conversational, which calls a flush to your face, as much as it helps remind you that this is your family, your clade. You're safer here than you are in a lot of other places.

Even if you're kinda sure Ara can take you, and she's just been too polite to point that fact out until now.

"Oh, definitely," says Sollux, and  _this_  you growl at, even as your ears burn, and you snuggle closer to Fef. "But he's hot while doing it, and the dumbass thing is kinda cute, y'know?"

"Hm. Yeah, I guess so!"

Still bright red, you sink down under the covers. Here it's quiet, everything is tinted softly spring, and you settle yourself in against her heartbeat, listening to the incontrovertible proof that she's still alive.

 

If she's mad, that's okay. If she hates you, that's okay. As long as she's breathing, as long as she's living, you can keep her safe. You haven't failed. You can work from there.

 _Breathe, Fef,_  you murmur, in the language your Ancestors called home.  _Breathe_.


	13. feferi??

Everything

burns.

 

It's like you've been filled with light, and the light burns, burning you up from the inside out—but the light is made out of water, and you're drowning in it, you're being dragged deeper deeper down, and you can't—

you can't—

you can't.

 

You  _aren't_.

 

You don't seem to exist anymore, not in solid form or solid life or anything at all but solid light that is also water that is also drowning you whole and burning you alive. You don't. You can't. You aren't.

These realizations three come one right after the other, and you whimper, and cry, and you try to curl up into a ball. You're not sure you've actually managed it; you're not sure what you are or what you're doing now.

All you know is this: Someone, somewhere, is calling for you.

You can hear it, a whisper—fef, feferi, ff, feferi, fef fef fef, ff with new inflections, feferi with a different tone—you want to answer. It grows louder and louder the longer you go without answering, and you  _want_  to answer.  _Can't, I can't,_ you try to say. They don't hear. You did not speak.

Please. Please, you need to speak.

 

* * *

 

Somehow, you become aware of...something. Something warm, then something cold, then something warm again. It's as if the entirety of your being has become a battleground for two opposing temperatures. Two opposing forces.

You're a little amused, somewhere, somehow, faintly—it's not a bad description of the relationship between you, and Eridan, and Sollux.

And your feet feel warm. It's kinda nice. Kinda.

Huh.

 

* * *

 

You blink, and your eyelids drag, as if they're made of something sticking and heavy and awful. You blink again.

Immediately, you're covered in affection.

"Mmrmghff," you say, and the affection continues, unabated.

From the end of the bed-couch-pile-whatever they have you on, Aradia grins.

Huh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things are heating up in the ampora-captor-peixes-megido household
> 
> EDIT: aradia is 100% massaging feferi's feet and it's not for any reason like she's the one who keeps feferi grounded and stable or anything nope no metaphors here good sir


	14. Sol Captor

The new normal takes some getting used to, for everyone involved.

 

When Feferi wakes up, it's like you can breathe again. She's okay, she survived, no one's stolen her free will, her freedom, her powers—her  _life_. You're not sure which scared you more. You know, your life has taught you, everything about the fae you've learned or known—there are fates much, much worse.

Aradia seems, out of all of you, the least surprised. You envy her in some ways: you'd lost your faith in the benevolence of fairy tales some time ago, and what's more, you're not really looking to get it back.

Eridan seems hollowed out and filled back up again. You'd never seen him so helpless; you'd never seen him so relieved. When Feferi wakes up, he cries, and something about it sends a protective flicker racing through your veins. It lasts until the next time he opens his stupid mouth—which isn't very long, thank the seasons.

 

When he and Feferi take off for a private conversation, Aradia hauls you down into the big armchair that's half covered over with blankets and pillows, and drops down on your lap.

You blink up at her. She stares down at you.

"Uh—"

"Talk, mister," she says, and you duck your head. From under the edges of unruly hair, you can see her soften. "Look. I get that Eridan's known her since they were kids, but we're  _all_  pretty stuck on her, and...walking in on them like that couldn't have been good for you. It wasn't good for  _me_ , but you look kind of fucked up, still!"

Sometimes you really hate that she can read you like one of ED's stupid historical romance novels. "It's...knowing everything that happened, and could have happened, it. It kinda sucks, AA."

Aradia runs a hand over your hair, and you tuck yourself against and around her, burying your face in her hair. It's soft, and the spicy-scented shampoo she uses is soothing. "What could have happened?"

"They could steal her power. Or kill her for her power, or for fun, or sport—a lot can happen, when someone wakes up. It's not always pretty." You pause, stroke over her back. "I had a really bad time, but I got lucky, I had a friend with me who knew what was up, and he got us somewhere safe before anything too bad happened."

You feel a shiver run up her spine, as she considers what "anything too bad" might mean—and what  _could_  have been classified as  _actually_ too bad. "But—now that it's over—"

"FF will be fine. Sure, she might run into regular type trouble, but nothing like...that." She might be able to talk a good game, but you can  _feel_  the free and uncertainty rolling off of her in waves. After a moment more of hesitation, you pull back and look up at her. "Now tell me. Are  _you_  okay? ED and I, we're used to this, this shit happens often enough that we don't  _like_  it, but we know how it works, we know how to handle it. You're  _new_ , you've never dealt with any of this shit before."

When she blushes pink, you know you have her: she's trying to be strong for all of you, even when she knows that's not her job, and you know she knows that. "Don't turn this around on me, Sollux Captor, I've known you since—"

"Which means that  _I've_  known you since whatever arbitrary embarrassing memory you were about to use. Check."

 

The pause runs longer than you anticipated it would, but your time spent with these three has taught you some degree of patience you didn't have before. Aradia's hands do not still, as she thinks, deciding what to tell you first, or working through what she should say. You know her: once someone's established that they actually do want to know what's up, that they can actually handle it, she does not hold back.

Finally, they still, and she looks up at you again. "I'm scared? I guess. When I first found out about you, all of you, it was just me and Eridan talking, right? So it kind of seemed like things would be okay! I mean, the guy's a powerhouse, with a powerful family—is it just me, or does it kinda sound like an angelic winter-themed mafia? I mean—"

"No, it's not just you."

"Okay, cool. But like...I guess this sort of shattered that illusion? There are other people out there that can compete. Er. Well, I guess not really, Eridan  _did_  kind of destroy them?" She frowns, thinking, and you lean in to kiss her expression better.

By the time you're done, the both of you are thoroughly flustered, but she looks like she might be okay again—which, really, is all you need. "So get this straight: yes, ED is a powerhouse. Yes, he has a  _really_ powerful family. And hey, guess what! I'm pretty up there too, even for a half-fae who hasn't Chosen. I'm not saying that nothing would have happened at all if we'd been there, but, oh wait, yes, I am saying that. If FF had been on Ampora land, or with me and ED, it's pretty likely any fae who picked up on her energy signature would have picked up on  _ours_  as they got closer, and turned  _right_  the fuck around."

"Someone's gotten cocky!" You can tell it's relaxing her a little, though, and honestly? That relaxes you.

"It's not being cocky if it's  _true_ ," you reply, smirking. "Now that she knows, we can tell her everything else she'll need to know. Teach her how to protect herself. Hell, we can probably even set up more wards and a better guard system, if we need backup from the Amporas. I'm not saying everything is going to be  _perfect_ , but it's gonna be okay, okay?"

Aradia shifts in your lap, and cups your face with both hands. "Do you promise? That it's true, and also that you're not just saying that to make me feel better?"

You pause, and really think about it. She deserves better than some meaningless platitudes, really she does, and...well, the more you think about it, the more you find that yeah, you do mean it. Fuck. Feferi was apparently right, with her long speeches about how "talking things through really helped". "Yeah," you say, a little slower, as you mull the last pieces of the idea over in your mind, countering your worries with the hard knowledge you have of your situation. "Now that I think about it? Yeah. We're in a pretty good position, AA, and we're gonna do everything we can to keep it that way."

There's a moment, where you think she might still be scared, where you're floundering for another thing to reassure her with. Then she smiles at you, and nods, and you  _know_  she knows you're serious, and you're right. "Okay."


	15. Fef Peixes

You and Eridan sit across from each other on the bed, waiting for each other to speak first. Outside the room, Aradia and Sollux are trying to comfort one another, probably, judging by the panic they'd both been wearing. You wanted to help, definitely, and to—to, if you were being really really really honest with yourself, to get comforted as well. You'd nearly  _died_ , it was kind of a  _lot_.

But.

First things first.

 

Eridan Ampora. He'd been your best friend for years and years, and he'd been in love with you for...a long time. You hadn't been interested, hadn't wanted to ruin the friendship, hadn't had the patience for some of the shit he pulled.

And then he grew up  _hot_  and got  _mature_  and kinda ruined the friendship by being exactly your type anyway. Not that you held it against him. You had other,  _better_  things, to hold against him. For instance, your—actually, no, don't go there. Focus on the task at hand: sorting this shit out.

 

Eridan Ampora looks at you. You look at Eridan Ampora.

First: You know he loves you.

Second: He's spent his entire life looking out for you, protecting you, for reasons you don't quite understand. His excuses at first were that his Da and family had taught him to do that (and you'd lectured him for  _hours_  before finally deciding, privately, that it was kind of  _nice_  to have someone that cared so much).

Third: You love him. You love him so stupidly much, and you  _know_  he really cares about you.

Fourth: He wouldn't do anything without a really good reason.

Fifth: He's not the only one who's been keeping secrets from you.

 

"Okay," you say, and you see him tense up. A flash of guilt overwhelms you, for a moment. It's like he's waiting for the other shoe to drop, like he's expecting you to tell him to get lost. Fuck. Even as pissed as you are about being out of the loop, that's...that's unthinkable, for you. You could no more tell him to get gone than you could tell one of your own limbs to take a hike. "Okay," you say again, reaching for his hand. "I need you to tell me everything."

When he realizes that you're not  _mad_ , per se, he seems to calm down just a little bit. With no little trepidation, you scoop his hands up, both of them, and press kisses to his knuckles. His shoulders slump in relief, and he nearly lunges forward to bundle you up in his lap, grinning when you let out a startled squeak.

"Okay," he echoes. "Lemme think where to start."


	16. Danny Ampora

"You remember the first day we met, right?"

Feferi's looking up at you like she's waiting for you to explain away the world, and you think that maybe, in a way, you're about to. "Yeah," she says, and it's more tentative than you ever remember her being—wait. Strike that.

The last time she was half so tentative, she'd still been stuck living with her bitch of a mother.

An ache, heart-deep, settles into you, and you nod. "Right, well. I got a...a pull, we call it 'The Call', which I know you're goin' to be judgin' me for later—"

"I'm judging you for it _now_ ," she interrupts, and you're too delighted that she'll banter with you to take any true offense.

" _Anyway_ ," you say, just to watch her wrinkle her nose and stick her tongue out at you (she only wrinkles her nose, but that's still pretty good, you'll take it), and continue on. "The Call is meant to lead us to our charge. You saw the wings, aye?"

"Aye."

" _Fef_."

"I'm listening!"

"Are you?" You fix her with as stern a glare as you can muster, but the fact that she's in your lap makes it a little bit harder to do. "I'm an angel-type fae. Or just an angel, no one's ever really been sure on the distinction, but we do get classed in with fae, and we're one a the main reasons that people mistake 'em for the types a demons you hear about in shit like—well, like _Supernatural_. I blame _Supernatural_ for the shit-awful state a current fae lore an' history, honestly."

"You know, this really explains a lot," she says, catching up one of your hands and tracing over your skin.

"How so?"

Feferi grins up at you, and you know she's about to start teasing the hell out of you. "Your complete and utter distaste for a show that might _otherwise_ cover a good portion of your aesthetic!"

"I'm goin' to pretend you never said that," you reply, already bristling. You have a rant, and you can feel it brewing. "Anyway. I'm an angel, or the nearest thin' to one that we have amongst the fae. A guardian-type angel, uh—most a my clan is...well, we're either hunters or historians or guardians, but we shift between all a that, y'know? Dependin' on what is needed. You work as one or the other a the first two, until— _unless_ —you find your charge."

This is the part that makes you nervous, because this is the part that reveals the extent of what you've kept from her: there's the Fae Shit, to be sure, but this, this is _personal_.

And she knows it.

 

For long moments, silence takes the reigns. Then Feferi looks up at you, and there's something in her eyes that you'd be hard pressed to name.

It's not hatred. It's not dislike.

That is _more_ than enough for you.

"Am I your charge?"

"Yeah," you say, and reaffirming it like this, out loud, to her, it's.

It's like you're promising yourself all over again. It's like the archaic string of words that ran through your head the first time she smiled at you are coming true. It's like you didn't even realize that your world was still spinning until it just, clicked into place, all over again, but properly, for true, this time.

Feferi Peixes breathes, and you breathe with her.

"Okay," she says, finally, and something in you that you didn't know was there eases almost entirely. "Tell me the rest of it."

 

So you do.

 

* * *

 

It takes longer than you'd intended to take with her, but you'd had to explain yourself, first, your line, second, and then the history of your clan, third. You'd had to take time for her questions, and answering those questions, and more than that, you'd had to offer up some context about the world that you lived and moved in.

_Why don't we—uh, why don't humans know about us?_

_because there are rules_

_If there are rules, how come someone attacked me in public?_

_thats part a the rules an if youre powerful enough the rules dont apply to you anyway_

_Is it always like this?_

_yes yes gods im so fuckin sorry fef_

You'd done your best to explain the seven (eight) courts, and their political intricacies, and everything else that kept your world spinning 'round. She'd taken to it, like a duck to water, and honestly, you weren't the least bit surprised. Fef Peixes had always been made for more than she knew.

 

When the questions finally slow to a stop, you're exhausted. You and Feferi are bundled up in the blankets, curled together in the bed, and you're carding through her curls, fingercombing them out as you wait for whatever she'll come up with next. Tired though you might be, you're used to drawing on your reserves, and you—you owe her this. You owe her more than this, by far.

"So," she starts, and you try not to tense, as you wait for her to ask something awful. "How do I choose?"

Oh. "Oh." That's...significantly less bad than you assumed it would be. Okay. Okay, you can deal with that. "Uh. You'll just...decide. You can have a formalized ceremony for it, some a the older families do, or you can just, y'know, decide. A lot a fae decide without realizin' it, in the middle a their Wakin' up."

Feferi relaxes slightly in your arms, and it eases you even further, as you wrap tight around her. "What do you think I should decide?"

"That's up to you," you say, automatically. She's your charge. You're not going to force her into anything she wouldn't want to do.

"If I decide to stay human, would I lose you?"

Sometimes, you're not entirely aware of how much Fef Peixes cares about you. Sometimes you just sorta...forget, sometimes you don't quite realize, that she has feelings for you that run deep. Objectively, you know it. Emotionally, you're still pining after her and terrified she won't love you back.

"Lose me?" It's the only thing you can manage, and you're certain you're staring at her, as confused as you could possibly be.

"As a guardian," she clarifies, reaching up to touch a scar along your cheek that you'd claimed came from a bad run-in with a thorny bush. It wasn't strictly untrue, just. Most thorny bushes didn't have arms and legs, and most thorny bushes couldn't _chase_ you, even if they could give as good as they got.

But Fef—Fef, she's worried about losing you. If she chose to be human. If she chose to leave behind all of this strife and turmoil and inter-court feuding she doesn't know how to face. She's worried about _you_ , about her _relationship_ with you.

You lean down, and kiss her thoroughly, and she melts into your embrace after an adorably startled little noise. "No," you say, your voice a little hoarse when you finally pull away. "Never."

 

And you mean it, with every drop of your blood, with every inch of your bones, with every single feather you've got her wrapped up in.


	17. ???

you can feel the undercurrent running through the spine of the world

you can feel a change in the wind

in the air

in the sound of things

in the scents of the hunt

in all things that some call signs

in the signs that those some could never see

in the outline of the shape of things to come

in the marks of the way things were

that everyone has already forgotten

you can feel it

you know

they do not, and

it makes you laugh

to watch them so lost

so adrift

wondering, wandering, wanting

as if their choices were anything other than another move in the game

as if they carried some measure of free will in their breaths and bones

there is nothing so free as yourself

they have nothing like the freedom they think they possess

and what little they have

is so, so

easy

to

lose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmmmmmmmmm


	18. Ara Megido

You wanted to make sure all your responsibilities were squared away before you'd let her try and work through everything. If you were feeling introspective, you'd know, immediately, that it was because you didn't want to fail her. That you were still feeling really guilty for what had happened with everything, for not _insisting_ that they tell her earlier.

But you're not feeling introspective so the main thing you know is that you feel like shit for not being honest with her.

 

Feferi's not mad, though, and you can see that in her, as the two of you bully Eridan and Sollux into bed. They'd insisted on warding the whole damn place, and the effort had tired the two of them out, much as they weren't willing to admit it. Once you'd gotten them all tucked in, you'd brought Feferi back out to the living room, then headed for the kitchen, and hadn't said a word when she followed you there too. She would talk when she needed to, and you would be there to listen.

 

"How long have you known?" You're not that surprised she's starting with the hard questions, but you have to set down the dough you've been kneading before you can even think about answering.

"Not very," you say, and when you turn to look at her, she's curled around the mug of tea you'd silently pushed into her hands. "I tried one of those summoning rituals I told you about, and accidentally got Eridan."

It makes Feferi snort, and you grin, a little relieved that you can get even that small amount of amusement out of her while she's this upset. "He must've been pissed."

"Oh, yeah. Had a whole rant about _Supernatural_ and everything." The memory's still pretty sharp, but some of the amusement that colored it has faded away in the wake of the near-battle that the four of you had to face. "That's when he told me...I guess, the introductory course? And about you being his charge. Neither of us knew that Sollux knew at that point."

She blinks at you, surprised. You don't blame her—based on the way Eridan and Sollux had acted, sometimes, it makes _sense_ that they knew something more was up first. They had, sure, but the fact that they'd _both_ been so cagey that neither of them knew what the other one knew was up was kind of surprising, and even more hilarious. "Seriously? Wow. How did they like, not know about each other? Eridan said—Eridan said that fae could sense each other?"

"Yeah, well, I think they both thought that the other one wasn't aware, you know? And neither of them wanted to be the one to burst the happy little bubble of ignorant bliss." You're not bitter or anything, nope.

Feferi's face falls, and you admit it to yourself: you're maybe a little bitter. You can't help beyond making something to eat, making a cup of tea, looking after them, you can't _fight_ , you can't do anything to protect the people you love from this much greater threat that you never saw coming—

"Stop that," Feferi says, interrupting your train of thought. You blink at her, and she gives you as stern a look as someone who stands at five feet and change can. "One, we need you, two, it doesn't matter whether you're human or fae or something in between, and _three_ , if being able to fight back matters to you _that_ much, Eridan told me that there's stuff that humans can learn."

"It's not fair that you can read me so well, Peixes," you say, in a bit of a huff and pretending at a bit more than one.

She grins and takes another sip from her cup. "Like you can't read all of us well? Besides. We _know_ you can do shit, you summoned _Eridan_ , and from what I saw, he's no slouch."

You have to take a moment to think about that. She's right, isn't she? You _had_ summoned Eridan, and from everything you knew about him, the power requirement for that had to be pretty damn high. Even if it had been some kind of fluke, or a streak of luck, that meant you _had_ flukes working for you, that you'd stored up enough luck to _do_ something with it, and if there was something there, then you could work with it.

From the pleased look Feferi was giving you, she could read this train of thought in your expression as easily as she could the last. You stick your tongue out at her, and she actually giggles, a noise that delights you as much as it startles you to hear it so soon after everything. You are stupid in love with this girl and giving absolutely no ground on that fact at all.

"Okay," you say, and you see her start to light up a little more. "Okay. I'll give you that. I can do shit, like summoning your grumpy-cute boyfriend. Maybe I can do more shit besides that. No time like the present to find out, right?"

"Right."

 

You'd gotten the bread out to rise overnight, and let Feferi stay up with her tea until she was dozing in her chair. Then you bundled her off to sleep, tucking her into place between you and Sollux. The bed in this apartment could fit four (mostly), but you already knew that by the time all of you woke in the morning, sleeping positions would have switched multiple times during the night. It wouldn't be the first time Feferi ended up sprawled overtop all three of you, or Sollux had migrated to the foot or head of the bed (almost like a cat, but you were only making those connections now), or Eridan would completely curl up around someone (usually Feferi) and refuse to let them go until he was completely awake.

It was nice. It was something new, for you, and you were starting to enjoy it even more, every time you spent a night asleep with the three of them all in one bed.

And tonight, it was a chance to remind yourself what you were fighting for.

 

* * *

 

 

"Okay," you tell them, Eridan and Sollux, early in the morning when Feferi's still asleep and you're all moving through your work as quietly as possible. "Tell me what I can learn."


	19. thii2 2hiit agaiin

It's like everything picks up again two months later.

Not that time had exactly stood still—it never really did, not around here—but it's like everyone finally remembers how to _breathe_ two months after you'd nearly lost Feferi, two months after Aradia's lessons in witchcraft and wizardry had begun, two months after you and Eridan had come out of the proverbial fae wardrobe.

You were probably mixing some completely inaccurate metaphors, but fuck that shit anyway. Right now, there was more on your mind than the situations and standings of whatever turns of phrase you chose to bastardize at any given moment.

Okay, at this particular moment, not so much, but _still_. It was the principle of the thing.

 

Or maybe the principle thing was whatever had you and Eridan packed into a small closet once more and staring at each other as you tried to sort out what you should do about Feferi's latest Aradia-backed request.

 

"Look, I'm just sayin'—if we got all a my clan together for it, or even a good chunk, she'd be pretty fuckin' safe, it's not like there are many people who'll cross a whole fuckin' _group_ of Amporas."

You frown, slightly—even if you can't exactly disagree with that statement, you sure as shit want to _try_. "I mean, I _guess_. But what happens if one of the very, _very_ few, decides that today's their lucky day?"

"I didn't say we were goin' today—"

"Figure of speech, ED."

He flips you off, and leans back against the wall. The faerie lights you've conjured up do interesting things to his face at this angle, and you notice, with some amount of amusement, that they cast feather patterns onto the wall behind him, just where his wings would do the same.

"Angel," you say, and he flushes the bright pink that always makes you and FF want to tease him more. When she'd first realized he could go violet-flushed in his fae form, she'd been over the fucking moon, and AA had actually had to stop her from saying shit to make him go pretty colors—you'd been laughing way too hard (but you'd stopped when the three of them had teamed up on _you_ ). "Tell me why you want our princess visiting the fae world so bad and _then_ maybe we can sort something out, okay?"

"Okay," he manages, but he's still fucking flustered enough that your grin spreads wide—from the look in his eyes, he's noticing that your teeth are maybe seeming a little more sharp than you usually let them show. "For one, it's her heritage, but I know that sorta argument don't mean shit for you."

"You would be correct."

Eridan flips you off again, but continues anyway. "For two, I'd like her to see it at least once before she chooses? Whichever way she goes, whatever she decides, I feel like she deserves to see it at least once. The good parts a it, anyway."

You nod, a little more slowly. He's not wrong, the fae world can be something truly special if you're in the right space for it, and hell, it might help FF make a decision either way. "Fair enough. If I agree—big if, here—she needs to see some of the bad shit too."

He gives you a crooked little smile that kickstarts your heart to a much higher bpm. "Still all about balance, huh?"

"You know me. What else you got, Ampora?"

"Three, she's the one who's getting curious about it. If we say no, she's gonna wanna know why, and if we don't have a good enough reason, she's liable to go out looking for it on her own—and if she does _that_ , we won't be around or able to protect her."

That one makes you wince: he's making a damn good point, there, and you honestly wouldn't put it past her to have a go at looking for a way to get into Mistral on her own, if she thought it was necessary. "Okay, well—"

"Four, it's—"

"It's still sort of home to you, isn't it?"

His flush goes an angrier, darker violet, and you raise an eyebrow at this new show of temper. "Captor, if you'd quit bein' so fuckin' contrary for _five seconds_ , you'd realize—"

"That I agree with you? ED, I've been there since you started talking."

Eridan's jaw drops, and he stares at you, like you're some new, rare species of fae that he can't quite seem to puzzle out. "If you agreed with me from the fuckin' _start_ , then why'd you put me through all a this shit?"

You smirk, which probably does nothing for his sudden desire to kick your ass. "When else am I going to get you to willingly talk about your emotions and feelings to someone other than FF, hmm? It's not like we've got the luxury of waiting around for yet _another_ life or death crisis so you can open up and be emotionally vulnerable without feeling like you've, idk, failed in your 'angelic duties' or whatever."

For a moment, you think he's mastered the urge to lunge at you. Less than a second later, he proves you completely wrong, and you're left in the very enjoyable position of being kissed senseless by a pissed off angel-type fae.

 

Not bad for a day's work.

 

* * *

 

 

Feferi's curled up in the comfiest chair in the apartment: it's the one that looks like a little nest, and she's gently pushed it to be perfectly upright in its little stand so that she can curl up with spare pillows under a comfy blanket.

Eridan gently scoots in a little bit closer, and lifts the covering blanket up—underneath, she's burrowed in the pillows and wrapped up in a second one, and the cuteness stabs you right through the fucking heart. "Fef?"

She looks up, blinking, and her expression softens into a smile as she takes in the sight of the two of you. "Hi there. Have fun in the closet, hm?"

You go very golden around the ear tips, and Eridan himself goes rather violet in his turn. "Uh—that's, that's not what we wanted to talk to you about, Fef, I mean—"

"We were discussing the _possibility_ of letting you visit Mistral. The Fae World," you tell her.

Feferi sits right up, and the bowl tips over fast enough that Eridan barely manages to catch her before she hits the ground. "Seriously? You guys are thinking of letting me go for a visit?"

"It'd be just a short one," Eridan says, gently setting her back into the chair. "We wouldn't want to keep you away from the human world for too long, an' it might not be that safe to stay for too long while you're still a human, aye?"

"Yeah, of course, anything, just—I can really go?"

" _Maybe_ ," you stress, but there's that excited look in her eyes that makes it all the harder to deny her anything that she might want. "We're still thinking about it, and AA wants to go too, which means we gotta sort shit out to keep the both of you safe, y'know?"

"Right." She gives you one of her sweetest smiles, and you can't help but flop down into the chair and scoop her up into your lap—which results in a protesting Eridan trying to join you, and a highly amused Aradia, who'd been eavesdropping from the kitchen, smugly plucking Feferi out of your arms.

"It's still maybe," you call overtop Eridan's head, as he does his level best to suffocate you with his stupidly beautiful pecs. "We haven't promised anything yet!"

Feferi's laughing in Aradia's arms, and you wish you could see her like this, always. "Maybe's better then no!"

And you decide that that's true enough for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's the beginning of the shittening  
> brace yourselves kids


	20. this fuckin shit take twwo

Maybe is, un-fuckin'-fortunately, much better than a no, and you, as part of your barest nature, are incredibly true to your word.

When you told Fef and Ara that you'd _consider_  a visit (told them along with Sollux, but technically, _you're_ the one who'd have most say, given that you're the one with connections to get everyone into the wrong realm of where they ought to be), they'd been over the moon, and you'd been prepared to deal with the letdown when you'd managed to finally talk them around to staying.

What you hadn't been prepared for was them taking you _seriously_.

 

Aradia pays extraordinary amounts of attention during her lessons with you, Sol, and whoever else you could cobble up to work with her. You knew the girl could focus in on something you wanted, but it's fucking uncanny, the way she took to all of the training in magic that the two of you offered. Honest to gods, you were running out of things to teach her faster than she learned them, and you and Sol had already started shopping around for a _real_  teacher, someone who could keep apace with her.

Then there was Fef—Fef, the love of your life, the bane of your existence—for once in her goddamn life, she'd actually started taking all you taught her to _heart_. Your beautiful girl was being careful, making contingency plans, examining escape routes and backups. She wanted training, she wanted you to teach her how to fight beyond the basic self-defense moves you'd talked her into learning, beyond the Aikido classes you'd attended with her (and tested up to black belt in right quick, given that you'd learned all that shit _very_  young), beyond anything you'd ever dreamed of her wanting to learn.

It was a little spooky, and a lot hot, if you were being honest with yourself, which you were having to, more and more these days.

And it wasn't just you. Sollux was thrown by all of this shit too, startled at how well Aradia had learned all he had to offer, and bemused by the multiple maps and charts and graphs that Feferi had detailed out. Your girl (and Sol's, and Ara's too)  _hated_  spreadsheets, and yet, she was making them, his girl (and Fef's, and maybe kinda yours) was paying closer attention to what she learned than anything she ever had during the entirety of your daydreaming career.

By now it'd turned into a race to see who'd run out of what fastest, and you weren't keen to lose.

 

 

All of this added up to make it a relief when you could just collapse onto a couch with them, take a break from the studying and plotting, and just...be. Sollux had smirked, when he first dropped down beside you, passing over a bottle of hard cider, and Feferi's legs swung easily up into your lap, Aradia tucking herself up in a pillow pile on the ground before all three of you. 

"It's almost Halloween," you say, as you're cuddled closer by both of your loves, and your love-adjacent. "Got that chill in the air."

"Is that your subtle way of asking for another afghan, Ampora?" Sollux rolls his eyes, and shifts around a little more, so that Aradia can rest her head against his knee. "Because I'm not getting up."

"Nah," you say, carefully reaching around Feferi for the remote. She takes the opportunity to shift out a little more, so she's draped over you and Captor both, and Aradia has a choice of whose thighs to use as a pillow. "Just figured it might make for some fun movies an' shows an' shit, if you wanted to watch."

From this angle, it would be hard to see Aradia grin, so it's probably a good thing that she turns around to do it. "So he's angling for a _Halloweentown_ marathon, huh?"

"Oh, you know it," Feferi says, and you glare at the both of them. Right terrors they were, and hard on a man's soul when they got it in their minds to be little devils about everything—which was far too often for your liking.

Captor on your left just snickers at your plight, and you scoop up a handful of popcorn for the bowl that Aradia had somehow obtained without letting anyone else know and toss a handful at him. For once, you miss the days when the two of you held back on using your powers. It's far too easy for him to catch all of them, save for the two heading straight for his mouth, and keep them there for snacks. "Jackass," you mumble, and his grin only widens.

Help comes from an unexpected quarter. Aradia clears her throat, and waves the remote enough to knock a piece of popcorn out of Sollux's hold. "I personally have no objections to a _Halloweentown_ marathon! Anyone else?" Sollux opens his mouth to protest, and Aradia knocks the next piece of popcorn right into it. "Great! Eridan, if you would do the honors?"

You're trying not to seem too pleased as you get the movies set up. It'll just make Sol pout all the more, which means Fef'll feel an obligation to offer him comfort. Maybe you wouldn't mind seeing that (you really wouldn't), but tonight, you want her attention on you.

If you're being honest with yourself, you'd admit that you always want her attention on you, and you'd like to have everyone else's besides, please and thank you very much. Of course, the truth is that you're not _usually_  being honest with yourself about that, even if you'd like to think that you try.

 

With the movies queued up to go, you settle back down into the couch—then dare something you hadn't ever before.

When your wings flare out, spreading wide to wrap gently around as much of the three of them as you can reach, their expressions are lit with awe. It's...okay, honestly, it's everything you ever dreamed it could be, and you're more than a little bit flustered at their reactions, reaching out to run a wing over someone's hair, cup someone's cheek here and there, curl tighter around to gently nudge them in. You love this kinda shit, you love being so close to them, and when you're all bundled up together like this, you can almost kind of forget that Fef and Ara want to go to one of the most dangerous places in the known universe, that Sol still hasn't chosen, that you are taking on a metric _ton_  of shit you're not ready for.

You can, instead, focus on watching _Halloweentown_  and tossing popcorn at people who may or may not catch it, and just be, for once...Eridan. Eridan, with no Ampora, no guardian status, no expectations or worry or fear of failure that's been hanging over you since you'd first fledged.

It's a good damn feeling, and you think that maybe you'd really like to feel it, for just a little bit more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND WE'RE BACK BABEYYYYYYY
> 
> SO the long pause? NaNoWriMo. yesterday I submitted the final count of my novel and it was, in fact, over 50k, which means the UPDATE TRAIN IS BACK ON
> 
> unfortunately, I no longer have a buffer, so we're going to be spending a little time building that up—until further notice, Iridium's on a "every other week" schedule, but with a little luck, we'll be back up to weekly soon enough ;)


	21. m0re shit i guess!

When you were promised magic practice and magic lessons in preparation for a visit to Mistral, you definitely did not expect your lessons to include ruck marches. Absolute last thing you would have considered! You're also pretty sure that Feferi did not expect this either, but given her resigned expression, when Eridan had shaken you both awake before dawn, this is something she's been dragged on before.

"Any advice?"

Feferi groans, and shoves her face into your shoulder a little bit more. "He's evil, and also an asshole, and being chipper will only feed into his tyranny."

You're very tempted to be amused over how cute your girlfriend is, but you have a feeling that might fall under the "being chipper" category, so you settle for stroking over her hair in as soothing a way as you can manage, as Eridan hums along to the quiet music on the stereo and Sollux snoozes in the front seat. Your girlfriend's boyfriend hadn't even bothered waking your boyfriend up; Eridan had simply scooped Sollux out of the bed, carried him down to the car, and tucked him into the front seat with a blanket and a pillow. If it hadn't been for the conversation they'd had last night, you might be worried that Sollux would awake en route to the hike and assume that he was being kidnapped.

Eridan makes eye contact with you in the rearview mirror, and you feel, once more, that prickle of understanding (re: the appeal he has for your boyfriend and girlfriend) when he gives you a grin. "Don't fuss overmuch about her, she'll ease up once she's out in the fresh air again. 'sides, she's just whinin', she woke up earlier'n this for all a the swim practice an' water polo she did when we were kids."

Feferi _hisses_  at him, and he laughs, deep and vibrant. When you glance down at her, she's giving you a look that's a cross between smug certainty and consternation. "Not a _word_ ," you insist, and hope it doesn't sound like a hiss coming from you either.

She glances up at the front, then smirks up at you. "Fine, fine," she says. "My lips are sealed."

 

* * *

 

Fog and mist make for a beautiful sunrise, as it slowly pours gold over the earth. You'd kept up with Eridan and Feferi well, according to the two of them—Eridan _had_  been right, once Feferi had gotten some fresh air (and private mockery) into her system, she'd been as up and at 'em as Eridan himself—and Sollux is—

Well, Sollux is Sollux.

You're pretty sure that if he wasn't a fae, he wouldn't be anywhere near as able to keep up as he's showing himself to be.

Er.

Sort of.

 

When you'd all come to a halt the first time—an hour in, and about half an hour past sunrise—you'd caught Eridan's dark mutters, and the glares he kept shooting at your boyfriend. You'd been about to intervene when you noticed that almost all the glares were aimed at Sollux's feet, and that if you _followed_  the line of the glares...they were actually aimed at the nearly two-inch space between the ground and said feet.

"You've been _cheating_ ," you'd said, as you realized it, absolutely ready to throw hands. Eridan had dragged all three of you out here for a ruck march, and Sollux was getting away with this flyby shit! You wouldn't stand for it! You—

"He's already half-fae," Feferi had said, from where she was examining a heavily-laden berry bush. "I mean, I'd like to shove him in a lake for it too, but technically we're the ones in training."

Sollux, supremely smug, had floated himself over to a rock to sit. Unfortunately, that had been _just_  as Eridan decided to call an end to the rest break.

 

But now you were a good three hours into the hike and Sollux was actually walking, on occasion. He didn't have a pack (you suspected that Eridan had known exactly how far not to push), but after conversation, he'd bartered with Eridan to be able to lighten your load, and Feferi's as well.

Eridan had gone over easy, surprisingly enough. Surprising enough to make you curious, in fact.

It didn't take long for Sollux and Feferi to catch up the thread of a conversation and start passing it back and forth between them, quick wit and witty quips, and you let them keep at it for a minute or two more before lengthening your stride enough to catch Eridan up.

(Not to be _mean_ , but Sollux was a lazy walker, and Feferi, well. It was like corgis versus border collies.)

"So," you start with, and when he frowns at you, trip over your next words. "The bags."

"Oh, right." He glances back across one shoulder, to Feferi and Sollux, then shakes his head. "He made a couple a good points. It's not like we won't be with you, it's not like you'll have the full weight a what I'm makin' you carry, and also, it's a good way for the two a us to practice how much magic we can commit without drainin' ourselves, or how deep our reservoirs ought to be."

"This isn't just training for us, then." The light is dawning, and you risk another glance yourself. Since your first accidental summoning, you'd assumed it was going to be a mentor/mentee thing all the way. "You're testing yourselves too?"

"Yeah." Eridan pulls a face. You get the feeling he's being hard on himself again. "Only, for once Captor caught onto it before I did. Think that might be why he agreed to come last night, although he did stipulate that I wasn't to wake him for any reason other than the emergency until we actually arrived."

"I was wondering about that one, yeah."

"Wonder no more, I guess."

"Don't worry," you tell him, grinning. "I have plenty of other things to wonder about." Some of your coworkers have called you unsettling: you're striving for otherworldly every day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND WE'RE BACK!
> 
> The Polyswap Big Bang is FINALLY over, which means I can (hopefully) get on a more regular update schedule for all of my stuff. Until further notice, Iridium is going to be updating twice a month! I'll hopefully be able to get something set up to track what I need to do and when, and then we'll be totally back in business :D


	22. )(ere we go again!

Your newfound senses, as frail as they may be—compared to Eridan's and Sollux's, at least, based on what they were saying (or bragging) about how theirs worked—are still good enough for you to track a hell of a lot more than you used to. Right at this very moment, for instance, you're getting a weird vibe that makes you wonder if you're being followed, and...well, you're pretty sure it's the cute cat that keeps mewing at you whenever you glance back, but after that run-in you had at the clinic, and how overprotective Eridan and Sollux had gotten, and...okay, maybe you were getting a teensy bit paranoid, but it _also_  maybe wasn't totally paranoia, given that someone had shown themselves to actually be out to get you.

So you're heading back home, and yes, you are a little bit nervous! But you're also trying _not_  to be nervous, because this kind of shit, it's been happening all the time, and honestly? You're learning to handle all of this, and you're really trying to prove to your boys that you can handle this shit as much as Aradia, who has been picking up her magic lessons at a frankly fucking _alarming_  rate.

There are no secrets between you and Eridan anymore, and it is the sort of feeling that takes you back to when you were children, sharing stories across the swings, trading all the little things you'd never told another soul. It's like a rift you hadn't even quite noticed opening is finally beginning to heal.

But then again, you're also feeling...lost. Scared, even, now that the world's so much wider. You've always been okay with the unexplored depths of the ocean, the unseen breadth of outer space, but something unknowable so close to home...

It's certainly something you need to get used to.

Even if you're not sure that you can.

Step One: Ignore that prickling feeling just between your shoulder blades (save to keep your focus steady, yourself ready for any kind of attack) and get yourself back home.

 

* * *

 

 _Assassin's Creed: Odyssey_ is the topic du jour—and du week, du month—and when you finally get back to the safety of the house (it only took you a half hour of walking back today and a _month_  of searching in the weeks previous, to get such a perfect place for the four of you), there's a spirited debate going on over what build works best. Aradia, based on the play records, seems to be winning, but Eridan's claimed the console and opened up his save file to _prove_  the worth of his own strategy. Sollux...Sollux is either participating or shit stirring. Possibly both. You're not sure.

It's a shade of normal you haven't seen in a long time, and you'd be the first to admit that it feels really, _really_  good. When the three of them spot you, you're immediately bundled up in affection and love—and the argument continues over the top of your head. 

"It's Assassin's Creed! Focusing on a non-assassin build, _especially_  for a warrior build, while _understandable_ in, say, Conquest Battles, is kind of ridiculous—"

"Oh my god, Sol, you're just bein' a dick because we _proved_  that my Kassandra can take out your Alexios—"

"You're _both_  neglecting the far superior hunter-centric build! It covers the best aspects of both of them, without any loss to game—"

You put to use another gift from your newly awakened fae side: Growling. "If you guys keep doing this while you're hugging me, I _will_  start biting."

Immediately, you're bundled up into their arms and led  off to the couch, where you're once more bundled up between the three of them, snuggled into Eridan's lap, with Sollux's hands already combing out your hair and Aradia complaining about the sorry state of your nail polish. "We'll redo it this weekend," she promises, beaming at you.

"You're the best," you tell her, then glance up at Eridan, whose grip on you has steadily been getting tighter. "Dan? Are you okay? What's going on?"

There's something in his eyes that—oddly enough—takes you back to the street, with the feeling of something dragging itself across your senses. "When did you meet another fae, Fef? This scent wasn't on you this mornin'."

His voice is a shade rougher, a note or two lower, and it adds to the icy cold claws down your back. "I...don't think I did—" His eyes get colder, and you shake your head, wanting to ward off the chill. "—but when I was coming home, I—I felt like someone was following me? I don't know how to explain it—"

" _Fuck_ ," he mutters, tugging you in against him. Aradia looks as bewildered as you feel, but Sollux's confusion is tempered with concern. "Okay. I need to—I have to make some calls. Sol, Ara, just—"

"Breathe, ED," Sollux says, reaching up to comfort Eridan. It's a sign of how bad things are that Eridan doesn't react, beyond setting you down in Sollux's lap. "Dude—"

"Don't let her out of your sight," he says, and stalks out of the apartment, wings flaring out behind him.


	23. ??

all the pretty little things love to run

look at your wings, little hunter

do they mark you predator?

do they mark you prey?

or do they write you into a corner

sealed into a specific role

like the shattering stained glass you are

all the pretty little things

are oh so easy to hunt

and look at you, little hunter

wings spread

anger evident

full of that righteous fury

an angel's drug

an angel's downfall

perhaps even an angel's demise

oh, this could be fun, little hunter

you are so sure of yourself

of your plans

your patrols

of your companions

your safehouses

your plans and wishes

your dreams and hopes

do you dare, little hunter?

do you dare?

do you even know my name?

you are following my trail, little hunter

without knowing if it is a true path

or a path I left for you to find

it

grows

cold

beware, little hunter

be quick, little hunter

be hopeful, little hunter

for hope might be all that you have left to your grand old name

eventually, eventually

when I come to take what I am due

when I come to begin my hunt anew

but then

all the pretty little things

seem to love the hunt

and you, little hunter

who does not even know my name

you have collected some of the prettiest of all

 

do they know how to run?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> noticed it yet?


	24. Eridan: Swords

Your wings catch the air easily, curving around the feeling of flight easily. You know it; you have known it since you were born.

And now you are feeling trapped by it, almost—you know how to hide yourself, know how to catch wingbeats upwards, how to glide on the wind, but now, with something, someone, hunting Fef, hunting _your Fef_ , you're lost, you're at sea, you're less yourself than you've ever been. You need her to be safe. You need to _make_  her safe.

And you have no fucking clue how to go about doing that.

 

* * *

 

Another couple of spells, a few old tricks from the start of your guardian days, and you can see the exact path Feferi took. Better yet, you can see the person tracking her, their steps weaving in and out of hers, the way they tracked her—better, sure, but it's only better if they're too inept to hide it. Not if they're good enough that they wouldn't need to bother.

You do not allow yourself to think about what it means if the second option is true. There's too much on the line for your confidence to start shaking now, of all times.

You light upon the ground, and let your wings tuck away into invisibility, let yourself fade back into the rest of the world, and follow the tracks on foot. As you move, you fight to pick up fading scents and signs, needing to know exactly who crossed here, how and why they would dare to come near Feferi, _your_  Feferi, and _fuck_ , you keep getting stuck on the same points. Your mind's running in circles, feeling nearly as hunted as—

Don't go there. Break the pattern of thought.

Instead, you crouch down and focus on a footprint, fading back out before you can do more than call a couple of concerned looks from human eyes. Something wreathes up from it, a scent-image you can almost remember. Pity you're not a hunter angel, pity you're not trained as a tracker, pity you've only learned what's necessary for a guardian—

You shove fast-appearing doubts out of your mind and wonder if the fae you're chasing laced his pathways with spells to make you question yourself. No time for that, no time for contemplation or name calling, instead, you focus on following after him—you've gotten _that_  much, and fear and paranoia offer in suggestions of the rest that you don't dare _contemplate_ in open air—and memorizing every single thing about his trail with all of your senses. Memories can be easily trapped and more easily reviewed by the rest of the angels in your family, and from the way things are going, you've got a feeling you're going to have to call them in.

 

* * *

 

The trail comes to a complete halt at the edge of...something. It takes you a few passes back and forth to sort it, but when you fade back in, you realize that it marks the boundary line of where someone could or couldn't feel the power of the wards you and Sollux had set, the same ones Aradia's been adding to almost daily as she learns. Tracking after whoever this hunter was takes you in a perfect circle around that same power's edge, and just before the trail can overlap, it vanishes completely.

You have the very unhappy feeling that someone is taunting you, and the much worse feeling that you know exactly who it is.


	25. ?

I am

## The Huntsman

 **I am the King of the Wild Hunt, the Lord of All Who Chase and Seek, the Marsh King, the Searider, the Forester**.

I am the Huntsman.

And I

am

coming.

I wait for no man, woman, or child.

I stay for no beast.

I halt for no creature.

I am swayed by few, and feared by many.

If you are foolish; if you are daring, I will see your sins and watch them grow.

If you are brave; if you are reckless, I will use your faults and turn them, though—

You might, somehow, escape, if you are lucky.

If I am willing.

If Mercy might so will it.

 

* * *

 

 

But this time

This time, Mercy does not will it.

I do not will it.

And none of them will be lucky

                                               when I come

to claim                                                                          

what has always been mine.

 

* * *

 

It is so, so easy to laugh at a legend

when the legend does not hound your steps

when the marsh does not rise around every pace closer

when the hounds do not bell

when the bells do not call your name.

They toll for thee, my dear.

Are you ready to run?

I am the Huntsman. I am the King of the Wild Hunt, the Lord of All Who Chase and Seek, the Marsh King, the Searider, the Forester.

I am coming.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy 4/13
> 
>  
> 
> [check it](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18450158)


	26. Sollux: Coins

ED sweeps out of the room in a terrified fury, and you and AA trade helpless looks. There's something really, _really_ wrong, here, but there's no way you can sort it out or call him on it until he's actually, you know, _back_.

You're not...you're not entirely sure he's actually going to come back.

Besides, there are things right here and now that you have to worry about. Literally, right here and now, given that the big bad angel mad just deposited FF right in your lap. Also, she's kind of shaking, and looking more than a little upset, rattled, unhappy, and...ah, shit. Terrified?

"Hey, FF?" Your hands go to her hair again, as they so often tend to when she's in any kind of distress. Stroking over her hair calms you down almost as much as it soothes her, and untangling it, combing it, braiding it, they're all definitely up high on your comfort stim list even if they don't do all that much for her. "C'mon, hey—"

"No," she snaps, her shoulders drawing in. "I'm not interested in yet another—I don't _want_  him to leave me out of shit again, no matter _what_  good it does him or me or, or—"

You have a funny feeling that she's on the verge of tears, and an even funnier one that maybe you should be kicking Eridan's ass into being less cagey. AA scoots up on her side, offering what comfort she can. You're a little relieved, and it's not because you don't know how to help FF when she cries—okay, not _just_  because of that—but because you know that AA probably _gets_  what she's going through a little bit better than either of you ever could.

"Feferi, it _will_  be okay," she tells her, and you feel a flicker of pride for how well she manages to hold it together, even as you're feeling a much deeper burn of concern over whatever (or whoever, that's not good) it is that Eridan might've scented on her. Part of you wants to run your own tests, most of you knows that Eridan's already got that covered, the rest of you is _very_  well aware that FF is too rattled for you to actually try anything without freaking her out.

FF takes a deep breath, like she's forcing back a tide of emotion (you kind of hate it when she does that; she used to do it all the time), then laces her hands together in her lap. "Can either of you tell me about what he sensed or saw? I'd like to know, please. I don't want to keep being left in the dark about this." The two of you trade another look (you can't help it, at this point, you've got more looks than you have Pokémon), and you can tell that Feferi does not miss it. "Well?"

"I've been doing some reading," Aradia starts, and stops, like she's waiting on you. When you don't continue, she scoops up Feferi's hands and goes back to looking her nails over. "Certain fae...they like to hunt and track. More than like to, some of them...some of them are addicted to it, some of them get off on the high, some..."

"There's the Wild Hunt," you say, finally interrupting, because, well. Feferi wants to know, and she and Aradia don't yet know what they  _need_  to know, and that's on you. "Not every fae that hunts is part of it, but many of them are. It's possible he thinks that you were marked by a fae who is—to be hunted—but they have rules, and they wouldn't go after someone who hasn't yet made a choice. You're technically defenseless, and they're not about that shit."

"So what about the fae that aren't? And I'm not defenseless, I have you three—"

"—which is even more reason the Wild Hunt wouldn't go after you, unless you deliberately got in their way. ED's family practically _lives_  the Hunt. Not always, not all the time, and not every member, but there's at least one of those feathery fucks on every actual Hunt, and for good reason, too." You drop a kiss on her hair, feeling her slowly start to unwind between the two of you. It's a relief. "They're some of the best trackers, hunters, fighters, you name it. Hell, an Ampora _made_  the Wild Hunt, ages and ages ago."

"Oh," she says, and taps her fingers against Aradia's palms. "You still haven't said about the fae who aren't."

"Or maybe I was just _getting_  to that," you tell her, wearing a teasing grin. Things seem to be evening off, and you can deal with that. "The fae who aren't...they're more dangerous. They have their own codes, or don't have them at all, sets of rules we mere mortals—yes I'm including me for this—couldn't comprehend."

"So he's worried that one of them might be after me."

"The question would be which one!" Aradia seems to be enthused, now that she has a subject to research, and that's another little weight off of your mind. "Some of them are easily turned away or appeased, some of them might have accidentally marked the wrong target...we'll have to ask Eridan what he found when he gets back—"

And just like that, the fragile peace seems snapped. " _If_  he gets back before we're all asleep. _If_  he deigns to tell us what he found, the way he definitely didn't when he stormed out of here."

"Feferi, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that back up—"

"It's not you, Aradia, it's _him_. Doing this. Again."

 

It's funny. Everyone notices that you're a fucking asshole, that Eridan's got a temper, that Aradia is a little uncanny (and eerie, and occult, in all of the cutest of ways), but no one seems to remember that Feferi is a godsdamn _Peixes_.

She slides off your laps and heads for her room, slamming the door behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's POLYSWAP SEASON!
> 
> Which basically means that nothing else gets done and nothing else gets updated @_@ I'll be doing my best to post a little more Iridium, but the schedule is going to be Borked To Hell And Back until swap season is over. As an apology for that, I have a special treat for y'all this week—keep your eyes on that subscription update ;)
> 
> Thank you everyone who's been following along!!


	27. Aradia: Wands

In the hours between Eridan leaving and Eridan coming back (and Feferi slamming the door on her room), you and Sollux had ended up here, curled under a blanket and in a slowly warming chair, watching the lights outside from your living room window. Something felt...fractured, a certain kind of broken that neither of you could quite name, though you posited theories in quiet voices, hesitant to wake whatever other problems might be lurking in the shadows.

"Okay," you say, once you're nearly sure that Feferi's drifting, if not actually asleep. "What has him so scared? What do _you_  think he found?"

Sollux fidgets, which is definitely not unusual, but the fear and nerves that come with this set of fidgets definitely are. "Uh."

"No uh. Tell me."

You know it has to be bad when his fae magic static sparks out, and he reaches for you. You know it has to be worse when he actually goes grabbing for one of the couch throws to wrap the two of you up.

"Sollux—"

"Just—" He shakes his head, fingertips running over the seams in Feferi's post-finals week attempt at large scale crochet. "Okay. Okay, uh. It's...it's kind of fucked, to start with, and I really have no idea how to not describe it like that, but. Okay. Uh."

"It's okay," you tell him, and pick up his hands to start massaging them out. It's one of the most useful tricks Feferi's medical courses actually taught you.

"So, uh, the Wild Hunt, which one of Eridan's ancestors allegedly began. Okay, well, less than allegedly, we _know_ he did, because, uh, the dude's still alive."

"Holy shit."

"That is, unfortunately, not the end of it. The dude is still alive, but he also went...kind of batshit insane? Goes by the Huntsman, now. Stalks after the greatest prey he can find, turns it into some huge, sick game." Sollux rests his chin on top of your head, and you sprawl out against him. "Sometimes he tries to drag other Amporas into his batshittery too. It doesn't usually work, and on the rare occasions it does, the other Amporas go to fucking _war_. It's kind of terrifying, but I'm also told it's kind of hot."

"Have they ever lost?"

His answer is a bare flicker of cold comfort: "Not yet."

 

* * *

 

By mutual, unspoken agreement, you turn the talk to other topics. Safer ones. Ones that don't feel like creeping shadows, drawing ever closer to your once-safe home. Eridan's been wanting to play another round of the older _Assassin's Creed_  games, and the current topic of debate is whether he should play _Black Flag_ or _Rogue_. Now that all of you _know_ , he'll actually play with his wings out and put his fae reflexes to good use, which make it a kind of study in poetry, and which is the other reason he lets you choose what he plays. He's vain as a peacock about it, and well aware that all of you like to watch him be hyper-competent at the things he likes to do best.

Besides, lighter topics bring lighter memories on which your mind can dwell, instead of sinking into worry and fear. It's more amusing to reminisce about the time Feferi told him that even though she didn't know _how_  he always won their games, his stupid levels of skill in them were why she'd switched them over to playing almost entirely luck- and chance-based games. Eridan's expression had been absolutely _priceless_ , and even more so when Sollux declared that it was officially no holds barred, and proceeded to kick his ass on the Rainbow Road.

It's better. It's safer.

It's a reminder that all four of you have more going on than _this_.

 

* * *

 

Eventually, the door chimes open, and you and Sollux both turn to look at Eridan in the slowly gathering night. He shakes his head, his wingtips dragging on the ground behind him, and Sollux tips his chin up to motion him over.

"I fucked up," is the first thing he mutters, and Sollux tugs him down onto the couch for a moment's comfort. "Sol—"

"Dude, breathe. Everyone's still here and alive, which definitely means that you did not fuck up."

"You're really bad at this comforting thing," you observe, and Eridan manages a watery snort. "But uh, you might want to go talk to Feferi."

"...shit. Right. Yeah."

"Was it—"

"I don't know yet," he says, then shakes his head even harder. "I mean, I'm not sure."

Behind wire frames, Sollux's expression grows grim. "But you have a pretty good guess."

"...I'll call my Da first thin in the mornin. See if...see if we can't get some shit sorted."

"Good," Sollux says, and tugs you in closer. "We're going to bed in a little bit, and also, you're playing _Rogue_  first."

"But _only_  because it's objectively the best in terms of graphics and gameplay."

"Hah, got it." He waves you both good night, and trudges towards Feferi's room.

 

You think you might have a bad feeling about all of this.


	28. Feferi: Cups

He comes back to you smelling of night sky and secrets, a thousand other things you feel you ought to be able to name. Brief ellipses of conversation float back to you between the actual words being said, before he leaves Aradia and Sollux tangled up somewhere in the living room and comes to your bed, wings still out; wings dragging across the ground. When he wraps you up in them, surrounding covers and pajamas besides, you know something's gone a certain kind of wrong.

"I couldn't trace him back far enough," Eridan admits. Tucked this close to his chest, you can feel each word sinking in, bone deep. "I'm sorry."

"Why would you need to be sorry?" You know you're wearing a frown, you know you're likely going to worry him no matter what you say, but he's being ridiculously overprotective, _again_ , and you'd already about had enough of it. In the time intervening, you'd decided that he was being paranoid. Even if there _was_  another fae out there, even if they had followed you, what of it? You were a curiosity, he'd said so himself, and if they hadn't _attacked_  then that was as good a sign as any that they weren't out to do you mortal harm. "Eridan, it's fine. _I'm_  fine."

He breathes out relief so tangible you almost melt, cupping your face and pressing his forehead to yours. "Yeah, yeah, an' we're goin' to keep you that way. More wards, an' we'll make sure you're never out an' about alone, ever again—"

"What?" When you cut him off, he looks startled, and you wonder how many people dare to stop angels from handing down decrees. "Eridan, that's absolutely stupid, I'm not going to be a prisoner in my own home, and I'm not going to be followed around by a _bodyguard_."

"But Fef—"

"No," you tell him, and shift back enough that his words don't roll right through you, that you can see the man—boy, sometimes—as well as the angel. "Why don't we just, I don't know, try talking to this fae? Find out what they want? Instead of jumping to frankly fucking _paranoid_  conclusions about what does or doesn't need to be done?"

 

You realize your mistake just a little too late.

 

Eridan's temper runs hot as often as it runs cold, but you know better than anyone that ice sinks easiest into his veins, that you can even see it frost over his eyes. "This isn't me _jumpin_ ' to any sort a conclusion, Feferi. I was out there, I tracked whatever was trackin' you, I _know_  the damage a creature like that could do. Not preparin' for this sort a shit, it's idiocy a the highest degree."

"So now you're insulting me?" This is unfair to you, and to him. You know this is turning into an argument, you can see things slowly falling apart, and you think—theoretically—if you were quick enough, maybe you could stop it. If you wanted to badly enough, you definitely could. "You know what? I'm going back out there, and I'm going to _ask_  our mysterious 'friend' exactly what he's after."

Your guardian moves like lightning, like things built from the wrong sides of storms, when he's focused or angry or determined or—

Well, scared.

Scared, most of all.

You're on your back, looking up at him, before your body registers the move. Your wrists are pinned, his wings are unfurled, and you already know that you're unlikely to get much in the way of movement. Above you—above _all_ —he is scared, he is terrified, you can see it in his eyes and rolling off every inch of his body.

Usually, you'd want to soothe this away. Tonight, it makes you mad.

"Let me go," you say, gritting the words out in a way you only thought happened in books, in movies, in other such overdramatic things. "Eridan, I'm serious, _let me go._ "

"No," he says, and you think he's maybe about to cry. "Fef, I can't, not until you promise not to go back out there alone, _please_ , Fef, you have no fuckin' clue what we're up against an' I can't even _tell_  you because even discussin' this shit is like to bring some kinda hell down on us that even _I'm_  not allowed to name—"

"I don't care, Eridan!" You twist, trying to tug away from him, and he releases you just long enough that you think _maybe_  he's come to his senses. Then before you've even got a chance to consider any sort of reconciliation, his arms are around you, bringing you in tight. "Eridan—"

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he mumbles, and you wonder if he's about to start tripping over letters again, a pointlessly petty thought that you immediately regret. "Fef, I can't let you go out there, _I can't lose you_ —"

When you feel tears on your shoulder, you finally give. He has a reason, even if you're not ready to hear it, and you're assuming that—to him, at least—it's a damn good one.

 

The rest of the night passes, painful and slow, the two of you curled up together like it'll hold off everything that comes with the dawn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and this is it until Polyswap and Drone Season are over!
> 
> well, tentatively "it". if I get the motivation, spoons, or some really dope idea then I will DEFINITELY be back at it again


End file.
